Vancouver lawyer Gail Davidson filed a written complaint today (December 4) with Vancouver police and the RCMP against Prime Minister Stephen Harper's former campaign manager, Tom Flanagan.
Update
Wikileaks, Assange remarks prompt Calgary police to open file on former Harper aide Tom Flanagan
Davidson alleged that on a November 30 CBC television broadcast, Flanagan "counselled and/or incited the assassination of Julian Assange contrary to the Criminal Code of Canada".
Assange is the founder of Wikileaks, which is releasing 250,000 U.S. diplomatic cables.
On the Power and Politics program hosted by Evan Solomon, Flanagan said: “Well, I think [Julian] Assange should be assassinated, actually. I think Obama should put out a contract and maybe use a drone or something.”
On CBC TV, Tom Flanagan called for the killing of Wikileaks' Julian Assange.
Solmon responded by saying "that's pretty harsh stuff."
Flanagan replied: “Well I’m feeling very manly today.” He added that he wouldn't feel unhappy if Assange "disappeared".
In an interview with the Guardian, Assange suggested that "Mr. Flanagan and the others seriously making these statements should be charged with incitement to commit murder."
Davidson requested that her complaint be investigated promptly by "competent and independent investigators". She wants a report and a copy of the complaint to be referred to an independent prosecutor for the approval of charges.
She also asked that she be kept informed by any officers or prosecutors involved in the case.
"Tom Flanagan has been a close advisor of Stephen Harper, as chronicled in his book, Harper’s Team: Behind the Scenes in the Conservative Rise to Power (2007, second edition 2009)," Davidson wrote in her complaint. "Flanagan managed Harper’s campaign to become leader of the Canadian Alliance party and then of the Conservative party. He managed the Conservative party campaign for the 2006 election and was the communications consultant for the Conservatives during the 2006 election campaign."
Flanagan has also served as Harper's chief of staff, and he is now a professor at the University of Calgary.
"Mr. Flanagan’s statement counselling and inciting the assassination of Julian Assange is directed generally to the public and specifically to President Obama," Davidson alleged in her complaint. "Mr. Flanagan was speaking as a man of authority who is called upon to advise the most powerful people in Canada. It is only reasonable to assume his incitement to assassinate Julian Assange may be acted on."
Davidson, a cofounder of Lawyers Against the War, filed seven criminal charges in Vancouver Provincial Court in 2004 against then-U.S. president George W. Bush. A justice of the peace accepted the charges, but they were later declared a "nullity" by Judge William Kitchen, who made this ruling after clearing his courtroom of the media and anyone else not directly connected to the case.
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In this instance it is about an old fool reaching for macho hyperbole, rather like me when I am crosschecked at a hockey game. I say "I will kill you" when I really mean "I will trip you when you aren't expectng it."
Oh really... It takes a political pundit from Canada to alert someone that wants government secrets to remain secret should consider assassinating Julian Assange.
Tom Flanagan would have been the first to summon the RCMP, and rightly so.
Inciting murder is a crime, no matter who calls for it.
We need more people like Mr. Julian Assange who are willing to speak truth to power, and encourage the free flow of information which directly affects public policy decisions. If we value freedom of information, transparency, openness, and democracy, we ought to praise not condemn such efforts.
"Information is the currency of democracy." -- Thomas Jefferson
"The liberties of a people never were, nor ever will be, secure, when the transactions of their rulers may be concealed from them." -- Patrick Henry
"Nothing so diminishes democracy as secrecy." -- Ramsey Clark
"The very word ”˜secrecy’ is repugnant in a free and open society; and we are as a people inherently and historically opposed to secret societies, to secret oaths, and to secret proceedings." -- John Fitzgerald Kennedy
"A government by secrecy benefits no one. It injures the people it seeks to serve; it damages its own integrity and operation. It breeds distrust, dampens the fervor of its citizens and mocks their loyalty." -- Russell Long
"When the state constitution grants each citizen an "inalienable right" to "privacy," it’s talking about individuals seeking safety from an overreaching government, not an elected official trying to evade the oversight of constituents. It’s the difference between seeking protection from tyranny and seeking protection from democracy." -- Jon Mendelson
"The basic purpose of FOIA is to ensure an informed citizenry, vital to the functioning of a democratic society, needed to check against corruption and to hold the governors accountable to the governed." -- United States Supreme Court in NLRB v. Robbins Tire Co., 437 U.S. 214, 242 (1978)
"The overarching purpose of access to information legislation ”¦ is to facilitate democracy. It does so in two related ways. It helps to ensure first, that citizens have the information required to participate meaningfully in the democratic process, and secondly, that politicians and bureaucrats remain accountable to the citizenry." -- Gerard LaForest, former Supreme Court of Canada Justice, in Dagg vs. Canada (1997)
http://www.allvoices.com/contributed-news/7516830-swedish-justice-system...
He's missing the point though...Wikileaks isn't being treasonous, and we shouldn't be killing the messenger. They're actually doing the job the press used to, and it's unfortunate it's come to this.
Instead of crucifying Assange, we should be looking closely at cargo ships for nuclear weapons, and start making people accountable for what's in those documents.
Mr. Assange is wanted by INTERPOL (http://www.interpol.int/public/data/wanted/notices/data/2010/86/2010_524...). The Red Notice gives the authority to any of the 188 INTERPOL member countries to "To seek the arrest or provisional arrest of wanted persons with a view to extradition."
Mr. Assange is not above the law. The INTERPOL Red Notice is serious business. Mr. Assange should stop trying to cloud recent world events by threatening commentators for making jokes and give himself up to the authorities.
Anybody watching Flannagan knows he was being a smart ass. Let me tell you there are many people with a lot more influence than Tom Flannagan who would like to see Assange wiped out. The RCMP will dismiss this thing outright.
Mr. Wiki leak has to be dealt with legally---as unsettling as his actions might be - he has to be dealt with by manner of law---what example are we.
How does Mr. Flanagan not know that some Canadians would not rather he were assassinated?
On the other hand, if this goes anywhere, Flanagan could probably make some easy cash from a malicious prosecution lawsuit.
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Politically motivated waste of time.
I hardly think a private citizen, which is what Tom is, saying he thinks someone should be assainated is an incitment to murder, that's just stupid. OH My God Tom from Canada said it so I just gotta do it? Give it up, it's stupid.
Assange deserves praise for reporting the truth and lies being disseminated at tax-payer expense.
Because of the level of respect and prestige Tom Flanagan enjoys (he wasn't on national TV for being J.Q. Public) he should charged and sanctioned for his foolishness. A fine and a criminal record would look good on him.
No? Didn't think so...
Unbelievable!!!
Brimstone Harper has a diploma from the same fascist degree mill.
seth
Someone found it humorous enough to post and that someone was actually working for the Liberals.
http://network.nationalpost.com/np/blogs/fullcomment/archive/2009/12/15/...
I believe that citizens should know the basis upon which the state makes decisions, including military decisions. If our state lies to us, then it does not deserve to have that lie protected. Transparency in decisionmaking is a cornerstone of democracy.
But once the state makes the decision, including and especially the decision to fight, then the methods of prosecuting war must be kept secret. Otherwise the state cannot win the fight that it has chosen to undertake, and its soldiers will die for nothing. That is the difference between a whistleblower and a traitor.