CANADA
Vancouver Sun
BY LOUISE DICKSON, TIMES COLONIST APRIL 15, 2014
VICTORIA — A Victoria man learned Monday that people writing on blog websites can’t get away with posting information that breaks a court-ordered publication ban.
Blogger Gregory Hartnell was found guilty of breaching a publication ban on evidence at the preliminary inquiry of a Roman Catholic priest, later convicted of sexually touching a young person.
Victoria provincial court Judge Wayne Smith found Hartnell failed to comply with a judge’s order prohibiting publication of evidence at Father Phil Jacobs’ preliminary hearing in November 2011.
At the start of the inquiry, Judge Evan Blake made an order under section 539. (1) of the Criminal Code directing that the evidence heard not be published, or broadcast or transmitted in any way until the accused is either discharged or, if ordered to stand trial, the trial has ended.
Smith found Hartnell, who attended the first day of Jacobs’ hearing, transmitted two postings containing explicit allegations to Sylvia’s Site on Nov. 8 and Nov. 9, 2011.
The public website, run by Sylvia McEachern, covers sex-abuse scandals and betrayals of trust in the Roman Catholic Church in Canada.
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