BACKGROUND
Joanna Berry is a Canadian immigration and refugee lawyer in Ontario, Canada. On October 2, two Niagara Police Officers, one of them a sergeant detective, paid her a visit to her home. They told her they were there on behalf of the Ottawa Police Department because of her “personal social media.” They begin to tell her that “10 lawyers who are of the Jewish faith” have filed a complaint with the police about her social media. As you can tell from the video, Joanna Berry, is outraged by the visit and clearly distraught. I reached out to the Niagara Regional Police for comment but they did not respond to my inquiry. I spoke with Joanna Berry also and she gave OTL Media permission to publish the video. She told us that she wants Canadians to see it and for the video to be a warning.
“This is very Orwellian”
On The Line Media is run by Samira Mohyeddin, a multi-award-winning journalist, documentary maker, and producer at CBC Radio One’s The Current.
Police are meant to inform people about breaking serious laws. We don’t send the police to intimidate someone because they said something bad about a different country.
Plus … if someone has a disagreement about a political opponent … then debate online … if that doesn’t work, complain to the business, complain to their company, complain to the social media company that is hosting the messages.
We don’t jump to the nuclear option and ask the local police to go knocking on people’s doors.
If that were the case, I’d like to ask the local police to a visit a few people that made me feel bad.