[2] Witness Intimidation Scandal Rocks Bill C-11 Hearings!
3A massive scandal has erupted in the Bill C-11 Senate hearings. Just hours before Scott Benzie of Digital First Canada was set to appear before a hearing, a Liberal MP leaked information to the media and made numerous wild accusations about transparency and lobbying money.
It turned out the allegations had little to no truth behind them after the Lobbying Commission cleared Scott Benzie and Digital First Canada of any wrongdoing. In the fallout, there have been accusations of witness intimidation and information being leaked to the media in an effort to bully and intimidate witnesses into silence before they testified and made their criticisms of Bill C-11 heard: https://www.freezenet.ca/chris-bittle-demands-investigations-into-people-daring-to-criticize-bill-c-11/
As it turns out, the attempt to intimidate witnesses was sourced to none other than Liberal MP, Chris Bittle who has an increasingly extensive history of questionable behaviour:
- He has already attacked witnesses in the past at the House of Commons level: https://www.freezenet.ca/what-went-down-at-the-now-infamous-heritage-committee/
- He later tracking those witnesses down and harassing them over Twitter: https://www.freezenet.ca/liberals-now-openly-attacking-creators-for-daring-to-question-bill-c-11/
- Subsequently picked a fight with University Professor, Michael Geist: https://www.freezenet.ca/liberals-in-full-meltdown-now-picking-fights-with-michael-geist-over-bill-c-11/
- Trivialized the Hockey Canada scandal as "Conservative Filibuster" https://www.freezenet.ca/liberal-mps-defend-bill-c-11-by-trivializing-sexual-assault-blocks-freezenet-reporter/
- Falsely accused Michael Geist of being a racist: https://www.freezenet.ca/there-is-no-bottom-chris-bittle-accuses-michael-geist-of-racism-for-pointing-out-racism/
- Later apologized for accusing Michael Geist of being a racist: https://www.freezenet.ca/chris-bittle-apologizes-for-suggesting-that-michael-geist-is-a-racist/
- ... and walked back that apology and accused Geist of bullying him into calling him a racist: https://www.freezenet.ca/sorry-not-sorry-chris-bittle-now-accuses-geist-of-bullying-him-into-calling-geist-a-racist/
So, a very fast growing history of questionable behaviour. This latest scandal seems to only add to the rap sheet we are seeing with this guy.
The good news is that, I'm told, witnesses were not intimidated and boldly moved forward, giving their testimony anyway despite what has happened. I can only expect that questions into what happened are only going to continue over the next few days.
0:00 Intro
0:14 Current State of Bill C-11
0:41 Senate Bill C-11 Hearings
1:59 Bill C-11 Supporters Failing at the Hearings
3:05 Bill C-11 Critics Testifying
3:45 Supports Lack of Response from Critics
4:29 Digital First Creators Having Their Say
5:05 Globe & Mail Article Surfaces
5:54 Digital First Canada Cleared
6:32 Suspicious Timeline of the Globe & Mail Publication
7:09 Accusations of Witness Intimidation
7:35 The Chris Bittle Connection
7:52 Chris Bittle History
13:11 Bittle's PR Damage Today
13:33 Backlash from Other Lawmakers
14:02 Hearings Moving Ahead Anyway
14:30 Conclusions