Assault is already a serious crime. Assault on a journalist or a press worker is even more serious. It is a crime against everyone, against our free and democratic society.
Journalist Raymond Fillion was violently pushed in the back yesterday by a demonstrator. This kind of individual must be prosecuted to denounce this unacceptable act. The need to denounce is so persistent that incarceration will be the only appropriate sentence to express societal disapproval, as a judge once said. in a judgment concerning another file violence against the media.
Indeed, attacking an individual is a serious crime. The courts regularly sanction people who commit attacks against another person. Assaulting a journalist, who represents the media, during prime time is an even more serious crime in a democratic society. It is a direct attack on freedom of expression and freedom of the press, which is an important foundation of our society.
Journalists and media workers must be able to do their essential work for our democracy in safety. In an environment free from fear of reprisal.
We need to find this individual and he needs to be brought to justice. I invite you to share his photo so that the police can find him. The example must be set so that this type of behavior, which has increased during the pandemic, stops immediately. That’s enough!
Legislators, prosecutors and judges cracked down in other areas where we realized that we had to be tougher to prevent the commission of crimes that were highly harmful to our society. Let’s think about drunk driving, a problem for which we took the collective decision to tighten the screw. It is time here that a clear message be sent to the population. Intimidation of the media will not be tolerated in any way, and the consequences against individuals who dare to commit this kind of act will be very severe.
This man has committed a crime under the Criminal Code and here is the offense committed:
Assault
• 265 (1) Commits assault, or engages in attack or assault, whoever:
(a) intentionally uses force, directly or indirectly, against another person without their consent;
This individual, by committing this crime, can incur a five-year prison sentence. The fact that he attacked a media, a journalist in this case, will be considered an aggravating circumstance which will increase the severity of the sentence which will be imposed on him if he is found guilty.
The fact that the crime was caught on camera will be overwhelming evidence against the individual. Difficult to plead that the gesture was not intentional, which could constitute a defense, when we clearly see the animosity of the defendant in the video. A judge would not be fooled, in my opinion.
Impunity has no place here. The crime was committed on purpose, in plain sight, during the live news. This is an attempt at general intimidation, a gag order. The purpose of the eventual sentence imposed on this man would obviously be to punish him for his action, but above all to set an example, to dissuade any other person from attempting to attack the media.