BartSimpson BartSimpson:
Sure he's a liberal and probably a commie, too. But unless he's aiding and abetting then he's doing his job as a reporter and he's got a right to be left alone to do that job.
True enough.
$1:
If the government were truly interested in freedom then they could spy on the reporter and let him gather intel on the terrorist for them.
That's what the RCMP did. Except rather than do it via cloak and dagger, they served him with a production order which comes with the legal trappings of having your day in court to vary, quash or show the order cannot be complied with. He got his day in court.
The information that the RCMP would be gathering would be evidence of a crime; if the target isn't supposed to be using electronic communication devices as part of bail conditions/parole, the communications themselves are evidence of a breach. If the target is admitting to traveling overseas to assist in a foreign war, that's evidence of a crime. To have the order issued, the RCMP would have had to spell that out in their application, likely with the reporter's stories forming their grounds. I would also safely bet that the Federal Crowns reviewed the application before it hit a Judge's desk.
$1:
Instead it looks to me like their purpose here is to silence him and shut him down.
Probably because he's coming up with information that's embarassing to the government and in particular to the CSIS that's supposed to be doing the job this man is doing:
finding terrorists and finding out what they're up to.
All he did was to troll social media and he came up with a wanted terrorist. Why couldn't the government do that?
Because he made contact
as a reporter. It would set a horribly dangerous precedent if the police were to pose as reporters, with an expectation of some sort of anonymity on the part of the target, and then use that information in open court to prosecute. It would dry up reporter's confidential sources or likely get one killed.
$1:
That's the question that needs to be asked here.

It did need asking!