Canadian Library Wants Media
Excluded from Porn Hearing
A hearing regarding access to pornographic Web sites at the Ottawa Public Library was put on hold after the library’s lawyer made a motion March 10 to close the hearing to the media.
The hearing was to address grievances filed with the Canadian Union of Public Employees—which has called the library a “porn palace”—by some library staff who want OPL to create a policy forbidding access to pornographic sites. The administration argues that doing so would censor intellectual freedom of expression.
Library counsel Jennifer Birrell said reporters’ presence during witnesses’ testimony would make a fair hearing impossible. “The Ottawa Public Library wanted to ensure that evidence was not exaggerated or accented by hearing what other librarians have said,” she said in the March 11 Ottawa Citizen. “Prospective witnesses may color their testimony based on what they have seen or heard.”
CUPE lawyer Robert Monti said the union saw no reason to ban the press. “This board is a public body and as such the public should be guaranteed access in a dispute that involves the public interest,” he said.
Arbitrator Sydney Baxter will decide by April 9 whether to allow reporters in the hearing.
Posted March 17, 2003.
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