CBC and Guardian Dream of Saudi Punishment for Bloggers

This article was last updated on May 25, 2022

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Freedom of the press is punished in Saudi Arabia and Canada

By Stephen Pate – Five years ago the Charlottetown CBC and Guardian newspaper had enough of this pesky blogger so they ganged up and forced me out of the press gallery in a Kangaroo Court hearing.

Guardian editors Wayne Thibodeau and Gary MacDougall could only dream of the punishment meted out to Saudi blogger Raif Badawi who has received 50 of the 1,000 publicly lashes the Saudi court gave him in a sentence. Mr. Badawi’s crime? Expressing his modest opinions in a virtual dictatorship / monarchy on his blog.

Featured image – Terad Haidar holds a picture of his father, Raif Badawi.

“Raif Badawi a blogger and activist who has a wife and three children in Sherbrooke, Que., underwent the first round of 50 lashes in public after morning prayers Friday, January 9, 2014 in Saudi Arabia, human rights group Amnesty International said. Badawi, who was arrested in 2012, is co-founder of a now banned website called the Liberal Saudi Network.” (Facebook/Montreal Gazette)

My petty crimes back in 2009 were blogging, expressing satirical opinions of the journalism practiced at the CBC and Guardian and advocating for people with disabilities. For that I was kicked out of the PEI Legislature and vilified on CBC and in the Guardian. My ability to report directly on PEI politics abruptly ended.

The Montreal Gazette reported Fears grow for Saudi blogger sentenced to 1,000 lashes.  Public flogging is intended to hurt, to harm the victim, to publicly humiliate him or her and to send a message to others to keep their mouths shut.

The CBC loudly proclaimed that they had done good back in 2009 with one-sided stories in English and French “Blogger expulse!”

The Guardian’s MacDougall no doubt wishes himself to be the monarch in a Muslim country such as Saudi Arabia where people are routinely be-headed for expression their opinions and other minor infractions of the royal family’s wishes.

Mr. MacDougall’s alternative punishment for a free press on Prince Edward Island in Canada was to run the miscreant blogger out-of-town, out of the province and out of his way.

On October 24th, 2009 Gary MacDougall the Editor of the Charlottetown Guardian headlined his column “Bloggers: Off With Their Heads“.

Poor Mr. Raif in Saudi Arabia no doubt wishes himself only forced to endure the MacDougall / Thibodeau punishments since his life is endangered in Saudi Arabia.

However, the hunger for freedom of speech often puts journalist in harms way from dictatorial members of the establishment. It’s ironic that Canada and the United States espouse the principles of free press and human rights while making a friend of the Saudi’s.

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By Stephen Pate, NJN Network