MediaWatch: Ethan Baron Of The Vancouver Province Gets It Wrong!


I expected the Media Co-Op, Rabble.ca and The Tyee to publish inaccurate/slanted stories about the antics of the last two Vancouver Casseroles marches- this is pretty much a given. But, I was rather surprised this morning to wake-up and find similar crap in the Vancouver Province. Sure, like most papers the Province is often filled with crap- but, I’d never had thought they would publish an article siding with the miscreants who have been harassing the police the past couple of weeks…

Let’s begin with a video I compiled today to help my readers better understand some of the inaccuracies in Ethan Baron’s story:

The premise of Ethan’s story is stated in the last paragraph, and it is so incredibly wrong:

“Here we have two peaceful protests, which turned violent when police tried to shut them down. The protesters have Charter-guaranteed rights to freedom of expression and assembly. In future, police need to back off and let them protest. Dissent, even if noisy and obnoxious, is not a crime.”

These protests were anything but peaceful Ethan- they were a small group of malcontent’s who were hell-bent on getting arrested. The police were polite with them the whole time, and they gave them multiple warnings before anyone was arrested. Yet, despite being treated with ‘kid gloves’, the protesters kept pushing things until the police had not choice but to make arrests.

Ethan makes his first inaccurate statement when writing about the Black Bloc’s involvement in Friday’s march:

“…video shows only two Black-Bloc protesters were there, holding banners and marching peacefully. The two were arrested, after rolling up their banners while standing on the sidewalk.”

This is anything but accurate. Watch the video, the Black Bloc people were getting in the police’s face long before the arrests. In what way are they being peaceful by waving a stick in the face of the cop with the video camera? Was it peaceful when they started chanting ‘fuck the police’?

Then, talking about the incident with the SUV, Barron says:

“The woman menaced by the SUV driver says police shoved her to the ground.”

Who was menacing who here Ethan? The protesters were dancing around the SUV like banshees- taunting him with their banner, and generally acting like fools. If you look closely at the video, you will notice that he was an American tourist. Is this how we treat guests to our country? Do you think many of their friends will want to come visit Vancouver after hearing about this experience?

Notice Baron’s quote from radical teacher, and Occupy Vancouver hijacker, Sasha Wiley-Shaw:

“It’s really become about the right to protest and dissent, and the way that’s being denied”

Back to those ‘talking points’ I was pointing out in my article yesterday- this is the same line repeated by David Eby, Lauren Gill, and Stephen Collis. It is a shame to see that Baron didn’t see through this…

Radical teacher Sasha Wiley-Shaw pumping-up the story for the media…

More of a shame is how Baron totally misses the point when he brings up the Charter of Rights and Freedoms. Remember folks, the charter says that people have the right of PEACEFUL assembly. There is a big difference between that, and what has happened at the past two Casseroles marches. It is time for the media to stand-up and understand what that means…

What have you got to say for yourself Ethan?

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