TNG-CWA Slams Raid on Reporter's Home

The Newspaper Guild-CWA has condemned the raids at the home and work office of an Ottawa reporter by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police. In a statement, the TNG-CWA executive board called on the Canadian prime minister and other leaders to end "this attack on press freedom and privacy."

Juliet O'Neill, a reporter for the Ottawa Citizen, had reported on the case of a Syrian-born Canadian citizen who was detained by U.S. authorities in 2002 and deported to Syria, where he was tortured. Maher Arar was released by Syria a year later and returned to Canada; he has denied any connection with terrorism.

In an early morning five-hour raid on her home, and later again at her newspaper office, police took O'Neill's notebooks, address books, computer hard drive, cassette tapes and other items. TNG-CWA has demanded that all the confiscated items be returned to O'Neill and the Ottawa Citizen immediately.

The police claim to be searching for the source of leaked information, a violation of Canada's Security of Information Act, a measure similar to the Patriot Act in the United States that gives authorities broad powers of search and investigation.

TNG-CWA also called on Prime Minister Paul Martin to "revisit the package of anti-terrorism legislation, and in particular, the Security of Information Act, under which a search warrant was issued to carry out the raid."

TNG-CWA urged the Ottawa Citizen and publisher Can West "to fight the actions of the government and RCMP as vigorously as possible." Can West has said that reporters will continue to investigate what government or police involvement there was in the deportation of a Canadian citizen.