Media Coverage: Global and the Streisand Effect

After the Edmonton Journal broke the story about AUPE's SLAPP suit against people who supported us on social media, Global TV did a story and interview as well.

Strangely, the link to the video now shows a blank rather than the video, and a search on their website brings up nothing.

That's unfortunate, because it was unusually good coverage.  They even got the difference between SAIL and Artspace right.  There was only one error of note, which was a mistake in the surname of an Artspace member being interviewed.  It also had a strange ending, when it was suggested that members were frustrated with SAIL's refusal to negotiate.  I don't know who they talked to, but it was misleading.  There's nothing to negotiate, since AUPE wouldn't accept anything SAIL offered, nor will they back down from demanding more than SAIL can afford.

The print version is still there, though, and they got the correct surname there.  In fact, this is one occasion where we have a media win, for overall accuracy and good reporting.

Here's part of it.

The Statement of Claim outlines 19 of Smith’s tweets from Aug. 7 and 8, which the union claims “clearly intended, either directly or by innuendo” that union members violated the provincial Labour Relations Code.

One of Smith’s tweets listed in the Statement of Claim says “there are countless videos showing your members threatening and harassing residents. The jig is up.”

“What I’ve seen has been disturbing; there’s been air raid sirens at early morning hours, there’s been use of a blow horn to yell at residents and intimidate them,” Smith added Saturday.

Just as a reminder, this is what the labour regulations are about picketing.

III. PICKETING 

Once a lawful strike or lockout is in progress, the Code allows persons to engage in picketing and to try to persuade others not to enter the employer's place of business or do business with the employer. See: Section 84(1).The right to picket in connection with a labour dispute is subject to the following conditions:

· it must be peaceful;· it must take place only at the striking or locked-out employees' place of employment;· it must not involve acts that are otherwise unlawful.

The Board has the power under section 84 of the Code to regulate lawful picketing. It will do so where necessary to maintain the lawful character of the picketing and preserve the peace. The parties may themselves reach agreement on picketing protocols. See: Section 84(2)(b), (3), (4); Cargill Foods v. UFCW Local 1118 [1997] Alta.L.R.B. LR-025.

And about misconduct.

... a course of conduct of incitement, intimidation, coercion, undue influence, provocation, infiltration or any similar course of conduct intended to prevent, interfere with or break up lawful activities likely to induce a breach of the peace in respect of a strike or lockout.

I invite you to see the videos yourself (there's currently 78 of them online) and make your own decision about whether or not the picketing of our homes were a violation of the Labour Relations Code.

Also, this is where the place of employment is.

And where they usually hang out.

This post goes into more detail.

As for the tweets?  Here are some more of them.

 @_AUPE_ Members were blocking people from leaving the residence. Move out of the damn way. Those are PRIVATE CITIZENS #UnitedWithKikki
 .@_AUPE_ Should let public know how members are harassing & abusing private residents at Art Space: youtu.be/OpAGhXrqQs4 #UnitedWithKikki
 .@_AUPE_ how bout private citizens being blocked by Art Space residents who aren't associated w/SAIL? youtu.be/z-S3qSOq-q8 #UnitedWithKikki
 . @_AUPE_ members who harass, bully, threaten the disabled residents at the complex: youtube.com/watch?v=OpAGhX… #UnitedWithKikki . @_AUPE_ worse than blocking. They scream sirens at 8 a.m., verbally attack disabled residents, threaten. #ableg #UnitedWithKikki
 . @_AUPE_ lawyer screaming threats of subpeonas at disabled residents: youtu.be/k6hakuNxoog #artspaceundersiege #ableg #UnitedWithKikki
 . @_AUPE_ Vids show blatant harassment. AUPE attacking private, disabled residents. youtube.com/watch?v=OpAGhX… #ableg #UnitedWithKikki
 @_AUPE_ encouraging continued harassment of private, disabled citizens at their homes is DISGUSTING. #ableg #UnitedWithKikki
 Happening at #yeg Art Space-not story @_AUPE_ telling media or public. Threats, bullying: artspaceundersiege.blogspot.ca #UnitedWithKikki
 .@_AUPE_ Yr members have created unlivable state in neighborhood. Feel proud of members attacking disabled people? #ableg #UnitedWithKikki

These basically describe what was in the videos - you know, the ones that signs all over the high rise say could end up on Youtube - as well as how people living here in Artspace feel.

There's also this:

The union outlines four statements allegedly published by Tucker on his website on Aug. 18. The AUPE claims his statements were also “false and defamatory.” In the post, Tucker stated that housing cooperative residents were being “held hostage” in their homes by picketing union members.

Mr. Tucker wrote a single blog post, after having visited Artspace and talked to people who live here.

People who do, indeed, feel like we are being held hostage.

Oh, and then there's this part.

The Statement of Claim lists [Jane] Doe, the unidentified blogger, as a resident of Artspace whose blog has outlined the ongoing labour dispute.

“When we see people who have been an integral part of our community, some for more than 10 years, suddenly out on a picket line, engaging in verbal abuse, intimidation, racism, sexism and able-ism and other forms of misconduct on the picket line, it was quite the betrayal,” the blog reads.

There's one problem with this.

There is no Jane Doe.

Oh, sure, we have female admins.  We also have females who have contributed to the blog.  But the blog does not belong to anyone, and many have contributed posts, including people who don't live here.

With that in mind, it took a while to figure out which post was being quoted.  It was from this one, written at the end of July.

Funny.  AUPE keeps saying the videos don't matter, because they're old.  But old posts matter.

Go ahead and read it, and decide for yourself.  It describes the behaviour we've seen, much of it on videos already online.

Tell me; is describing what has actually happened to us, and how people are made to feel because of these actions, defamatory?

Is questioning how people can do this, day after day, defamatory?

It's only defamation if it isn't true.

This part at the end of the article is interesting.

*Editor’s note: Global News reached out to the AUPE for comment on the lawsuit, but was referred to the Statement of Civil Claim. People on the front line also declined comment. 

How interesting.

AUPE has had no problem talking about the "bad faith" complaint they filed against SAIL - even after they withdrew it, and before the filed it again.  They've had no problem with public accusations against everyone in Artspace, but especially against some members of the SAIL and Artspace boards.  But suddenly, now they don't want to talk?

AUPE was already getting a black eye over what they were doing here. It's why they pulled some leashed and the picket line quieted down.  What they should have done is kept things quiet.  Better yet, they should have stopped picketing our private homes and instead asked permission to picket on private property in front of the SAIL office.

Instead, they did this.

And have given themselves even more of a black eye.

In their attempts to intimidate people through frivolous litigation, they have triggered the Streisand Effect.

The Streisand effect is the phenomenon whereby an attempt to hide, remove, or censor a piece of information has the unintended consequence of publicizing the information more widely, usually facilitated by the Internet.

If the stats on the blog and videos are anything to go by, they've only succeeded in calling even more attention to what they've been doing to us in Artspace.

International attention, even.

Which means even more people are seeing for themselves what things have been like at our homes.

The people who should be most concerned about defamation are those AUPE members who are being represented, not only by the regular picketers, but by the AUPE executives and staff that have shown up here and joined right in.

They are the ones who have damaged AUPE's reputation.