Thanks Harold for your supportive comment.
As I pointed out in my article, Sgt. Gagné was very frank about distinguishing between traditional media outlets — he mentioned the CBC and the Times & Transcript — and those, such as Warktimes, that he classifies as “social media”. He appears to use that distinction to justify not returning phone messages. In this case, I had called the Sackville detachment repeatedly for more than a week, but finally received a call back only after I sought the help of Cst. Hans Ouellette who handles province-wide communications for the RCMP out of Fredericton.
So, while the Supreme Court of Canada clearly states the rights and responsibilities of online disseminators of news and information, that does not mean that authorities will recognize their legitimacy and respond to their questions.
I faced this problem with former Mayor Higham who stopped responding to my phone calls and e-mail messages in January 2020. He never gave an explicit reason, but I concluded for a number of reasons that he too, classified Warktimes as “social media” and therefore, felt no need to respond to my requests for information. And, since the mayor speaks for council, I found it much harder to get information than more distant reporters from Moncton or Toronto whose calls he did return. Although I was still able to ask for information during town council question periods, the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic disrupted those sessions for a time too.
Thankfully, Acting Mayor Aiken does return my calls and e-mails and town staff have always been helpful when I needed information.
The Sackville detachment of the RCMP, however, is another matter. Here’s a little history:
After I raised the issue of why all RCMP council briefings were held behind closed doors in August 2019, the town decided to make them public and Sgt. Gagné clearly was not happy. He refused when I asked to take his photo outside the council chambers before his first public briefing. I gave him my business card and said I’d been a journalist for 50 years. “Anybody can be a blogger,” he replied as he walked away.
Then last February, he asked for a return to closed-door council briefings.
“Since we changed the format of our present meeting to being open to the public, I personally don’t find as much value in being here as I did before because I found our exchanges much more, I would say, hearty and substantial,” he told council.
Unfortunately, members of council are prohibited from disclosing information from closed-door sessions, so anything the RCMP says during them is shrouded in secrecy. Without the public sessions, for example, we would never have known that Councillor Tower had repeatedly asked the police to enforce no parking restrictions to keep fossil-fuel tanker trucks from parking on the Walker Road on and off ramps near the town’s water supply.
So yes, the RCMP may not officially have the right to decide who is a journalist, but they can decide who gets information and who doesn’t. Let’s hope at least, that council continues to hold RCMP briefings in public."
Bruce Wark is an embedded journalist in Sackville N.B.
and is unable to report on any topics UNLESS he is told to report on them by
the local technocrats / green cabbal... and the same must be said for CHMA 106.9 fm..
and that's why....
you'll find the administration at the town hall approve of Bruce Wark because clearly he is listed at the Town's website:
https://sackville.com/directory/
Cached info on Warktimes.com site...
The New York Times does not have a news bureau in Sackville, N.B., but The New Wark Times does. It covers local news and views written and compiled by a retired journalist.
Bruce Wark worked in broadcasting and journalism education for more than 35 years. He was at CBC Radio for nearly 20 years as senior editor of network programs such as The World at Six and World Report. He was the first producer of The House, a Saturday morning program on national politics.
Bruce also served as Legislative Reporter in Ontario and as National Reporter for the Maritime Provinces. His last job with CBC Radio was as producer of Media File, a weekly network program that reported on issues concerning journalism and the media.
In 1991, he began a 15-year career as a professor in the School of Journalism at the University of King’s College. Among other things, he taught the History and Ethics of Journalism.
For 16 years, he wrote columns and features for the alternative Halifax weekly, The Coast.
Bruce now lives in Sackville, New Brunswick. He contributes interviews to the American-based website New Books Network and is a frequent contributor to Wikipedia with featured articles on Harold Innis, Ursula Franklin and Angus L. Macdonald.
Send any story ideas and suggestions to bruce.wark [AT] bellaliant.net.
