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.
Yeah, it sounded like the detectives(…?) were going to lay out some of the details of the complaint, but she get-the-fuck-out’d them before they got there.
It matters quite a lot IMO what she was doing. Are we talking about dozens of harrassing/threatening DMs on multiple platforms? Or are we talking about heated comments on public posts? She said “I never threatened anyone,” etc. but that’s what they all say. I’m not suggesting she’s lying, there’s just no signal.
I hope we get to see the posts in question at some point.
I agree with you, I’m also missing context. I agree this looks very fishy for the police to be paying her a visit with the “you are walking a line” comment, but without knowing all the details, I’m reluctant to jump into definitive conclusions. I really hope this story gets picked up by media so we at least get that side as well, however imperfect it might be.
She said she commented on their posts ( that she claimed were anti muslim). if they don’t want her commenting you just block the person. But yeah, we need more info. However cops showing up based on a complaint when you have done nothing illegal is a bit thoughtpolicey