Bell Media is trying to intimidate me
CTV News is sending a message to me and others who dare to challenge Goliath.
Some of you warned me that Bell Media would try something like this. You were right.
Two weeks ago, the Canada Strong and Free Network (CSFN) hosted Canada’s biggest conservative networking event of the year. I am president of CSFN and helped organize the three-day conference in Ottawa.
In a series of bizarre actions, CTV News, which is owned by Bell Media, tried to harm CSFN and our event:
CTV did not seek media accreditation to cover the conference, which made CTV an outlier compared to other media outlets. We accredited 70+ journalists from Global News, CBC, Toronto Star, The Globe and Mail, Western Standard, National Post, True North, The Post Millenial, The News Forum and more.
Instead of practicing journalism like their peers, CTV opted to watch our Facebook livestream and selectively edit and post video clips of the conference on Twitter, in an attempt to take our speakers out of context and make them look bad.
CTV downloaded a portion of our copyrighted conference content featuring Stephen Harper and Preston Manning. CTV then uploaded the video to their YouTube channel without permission. CTV repoducing our content took away from our organization’s views and online engagement.
Bell’s conduct is what you’d expect from online trolls, not the biggest media corporation in Canada. But readers familiar with my racial discrimination lawsuit against Bell can connect the dots. This appears to be an attempt to intimidate me and others who dare to challenge Goliath.
My lawyer, Kathryn Marshall of Levitt Sheikh LLP, sent Bell’s lawyers a cease and desist letter. In that letter, Marshall writes, “CTV News’ above-described conduct may only be characterized as a blatant and transparent attempt to intimidate our client and prejudice the just resolution of the above-described legal action… In the spirit of free speech, we encourage Bell to avoid intimidation tactics and conduct journalism like its peer media companies and seek appropriate accreditation and permissions in the future.”
In a moment of providence, the day after Bell’s bizarre actions, CCMBC presented me with their Truth to Power Award. In my acceptance speech, I respond to CTV News and vow to continue pursuing truth and justice. You can watch that speech here:
If you’d like to read Kathryn Marshall’s cease and desist letter to Bell Media, you can download the letter in full here:
Lastly, a word of encouragement from Malcolm Gladwell’s David and Goliath:
“In reality, the very thing that gave the giant his size was also the source of his greatest weakness. There is an important lesson in that for battles with all kinds of giants. The powerful and the strong are not always what they seem.”
That’s a shocking display of professional disregard and either personal or political animus toward you. It obviously took more than one malicious actor to pull together that level of resources aimed at undermining the CSFN material. Watch your back and keep God, family, friends, and lawyers nearby.
Dang. I watched the CTV youtube, impressed that they would cover your event. Now it makes sense. I knew legacy media wouldn't give air time to free thought.