Blogger busts Adscam ban:
AN AMERICAN website has breached the publication ban protecting the explosive and damning testimony of a Montreal ad exec at the Adscam inquiry. The U.S. blogger raised the ire of the Gomery commission this weekend by publishing extracts from testimony given in secret by Jean Brault on Thursday.
The American blog, being promoted by an all-news Canadian website, boasts that "Canada's Corruption Scandal Breaks Wide Open" and promises more to come. The owner of the Canadian website refused to comment yesterday.
Adscam inquiry spokesman Francois Perreault expressed shock at the publication ban breach, and said commission co-counsel Bernard Roy and Justice John Gomery will decide today whether to charge the Canadian website owner with contempt of court.
"We never thought someone would violate the publication ban," Perreault said yesterday. "Maybe we were more confident than we should have been."
Duh! But, it's a rather odd ban:
But reporters and cameras have been allowed inside the hearing room as long as they don't publish Brault's testimony until the ban is lifted.
And members of the public have swarmed to the inquiry since Gomery cut off the live transmission, filling a special auditorium.
Rumours have swirled all weekend about a possible breach of the ban by American newspapers, Internet sites and television stations that are outside Gomery's reach.
I guess
Captain Ed can forget about a Canadian vacation.
Perreault warned that even if Brault's testimony has been outed by a U.S. website, it doesn't mean it is now public information in Canada.
"Anyone who takes that information and diffuses it is liable to be charged with contempt of court," Perreault said. "Anybody who reproduces it is at risk."
Sun Media lawyer Alan Shanoff said publishing the name of the blog, the Canadian news site or providing the Internet address could lead to a contempt charge.
I guess I can forget about a Canadian vacation too. Latest update is
here and just keep scrolling down the
main page.
