(Ottawa) Environment Minister Steven Guilbeault must unblock Rebel News founder Ezra Levant on X, formerly known as Twitter, according to a court order.
Posted at 10:27 p.m.
Jim Bronskill The Canadian Press
The order, issued by Federal Court Judge Russell Zinn, ends a lawsuit Mr. Levant filed two years ago in which he claimed the Liberal minister violated his constitutional rights by blocking him on the social network.
Mr. Levant argued that his inability to see or respond to Mr. Guilbeault’s messages on the platform limited his ability to participate in debate on matters of public interest.
Attorneys handling the case wrote to Judge Zinn on September 7 to approve an order resolving the case.
The order states that the parties acknowledge that Mr. Guilbeault and the federal government “do not admit or actually deny responsibility for the allegations made in the motion.”
However, following this order, the minister must ensure that his account is secured
The court also ordered the government to pay $20,000 for Rebel News’ legal costs.
The issue in this case was whether Minister Guilbeault’s X account should be considered a personal social media account or an official government account.
In an affidavit filed with the court, Tracey Headley, head of the Treasury Board Secretariat, said Service Canada confirmed that the account in question was not an official government of Canada social media account.
Mr. Levant argued in the first notice of motion to the court that Mr. Guilbeault’s account had all the characteristics of an official account managed by the state, adding that its contents were public in nature.
The opinion states that freedom of expression protected by the Charter of Rights and Freedoms includes the secondary right to access government information when necessary to express meaningful views on the functioning of government.
A federal filing in the matter shows that while Mr. Guilbeault was Minister of Canadian Heritage, various messages on Twitter called him a “crazy,” a “thug” and possibly “the stupidest minister in the world.” “‘Ottawa.’
Mr. Levant noted in his letter that Mr. Guilbeault chose to block him rather than use the social media platform’s less intrusive mute feature, which allows a user to delete another user’s posts in their news feed, without unfollowing or blocking that account.
Rebel News claims to have a generally conservative worldview and presents the medium as a proponent of freedom and an antidote to the mainstream media.
On the Rebel News website, Mr Levant said the outcome of the case was a blow to freedom of expression.
“This may seem trivial, but if Guilbeault can prevent us from receiving news and other information from the government, what else can he prohibit us from?”, he mentioned.
Mr. Guilbeault’s office had no comment on the court order.
Michael Geist, a law professor at the University of Ottawa who prosecuted the case, says that even if the order does not affirm a constitutional right, it sends a strong signal about the state of the law.
“We know that government officials use these platforms all the time for official statements and, most importantly, government business, and these should be accessible to everyone,” Geist said in an interview. It should not be left to a minister or his staff to decide who has access to publicly available information on a particular platform. »
“I understand that there is online abuse that no one, minister or otherwise, should have to deal with,” Geist continued. But given the mute feature of
The Treasury Board Secretariat did not immediately comment on the impact of the court order.