“Journalism is not a crime”: MP Lawton denounces criminal investigation into Juno News
A criminal investigation into Juno News co-founder Keean Bexte for election reporting is being slammed by Conservative MP and former True North journalist Andrew Lawton as “ridiculous.”
Learn how you can help at DefendJuno.com and watch Candice Malcolm’s interview with Keean Bexte at bottom.
A criminal investigation into Juno News co-founder Keean Bexte for election reporting is being slammed by Conservative MP and former True North journalist Andrew Lawton as “ridiculous.”
The Commissioner of Canada Elections has launched a criminal investigation against Bexte and Juno News following Bexte’s reporting on allegations about the Liberal Candidate for Calgary Confederation, Thomas Keeper.
The Commissioner noted that the alleged crime related to journalism was a breach of the controversial Section 91(1) of the Canada Elections Act, which prohibits knowingly reporting false criminal accusations about a candidate with the intention of swaying the election results. Juno News has strongly denied these allegations and stands by its reporting.
If convicted under section 91 of the Canada Elections Act, Bexte could face a maximum of $50,000 in fines and five years in prison.
The reports in question sourced first-hand accounts and allegations against Keeper, and multiple attempts were made to reach the Liberal party and Keeper to provide them with an opportunity to respond. The Liberals dropped Keeper as a candidate following the reports and replaced him with another candidate.
Lawton, a former independent journalist and host of the Andrew Lawton Show, defended Juno’s reporting and independent journalism on X on Wednesday.
“Contrary to the Liberals’ best efforts, independent journalism is not a crime,” Lawton said in a post. “It’s ridiculous that a prosecutorial body is pursuing Juno News over a story that was sourced and corroborated and was taken seriously enough by the Liberals to turf the candidate it was about.”
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Canada’s chief electoral officer recommended in 2016 that the Liberal government amend or repeal section 91, noting that “serious cases of defamation or libel could be dealt with through alternative civil or criminal legal mechanisms.”
In 2021, an Ontario Superior Court of Justice struck down section 91(1) as an unjustified infringement on free expression, but the Liberal government never repealed the section of the Act outright, instead making minor changes.
Christine Van Geyn, the litigation director of the Canadian Constitution Foundation, made a post on X saying she was “disturbed” to learn about the investigation into Bexte’s report. She said that the investigation was “weaponizing the law to stop journalism that the government doesn’t like.”
The Independent Press Gallery, of which True North journalists are registered members, also came out in defence of Bexte’s reporting and said the investigation amounted to “censorship by prosecution.”
Power of the people, the only way to defeat this liberal dictatorship. It’s for news sources like yours truly inform Canadians. We just need more independent news sources reporting this, I’m sure this is going to blow up now. Political prisoners is the liberal agenda with their corrupt courts
This is the Kanada we live in folks - unless you are a good libtard and obey the libtard chain of command and have no opinions other than 'libtards good', then you get to go to jail. We can all thank the idiots who live on the East Coast, in Ontario and Quebec for this mess. This Albertan is focused on separation and only separation. I wish Keenan the best but the Gestapo is coming for us all unfortunately.