November 16, 2015
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CANADALAND
#108 The Reporter Who Fought City Hall
Joey Coleman was often the only reporter at Hamilton Ontario City Hall: a one-man digital newsroom, funded by his audience. His constant presence irritated a city councillor, who lost his temper and got physical. Joey didn't fight back, but he was the one punished: through a series of retaliations he was pushed out of the building and his news coverage became impossible. He joins Jesse to tell his story.
Joey Coleman was often the only reporter at Hamilton Ontario City Hall: a one-man digital newsroom, funded by his audience. His constant presence irritated a city councillor, who lost his temper and got physical. Joey didn’t fight back, but he was the one punished: through a series of retaliations he was pushed out of the building and his news coverage became impossible. He joins Jesse to tell his story.
Joey Coleman’s Twitter: @joeycoleman
Today’s show is sponsored by the IOS (soon to be Android) app Giftagram. Use the offer code “canadaland” to get $20 applied to your first order.
Notes:
In the early evening of Feb 26th 2014, Coleman and Ferguson exchange Tweets
Video of the in-council incident occurring that same day
On Feb 27th 2014, Andrew Dreschel, city columnist for the Hamilton Spectator, Tweets a description of the incident. He later writes this opinion piece on Mar 7th 2014.
One year later, on Feb 25 2015, the Basse Report is added as a “walk-on” and passed (the Council votes at 3:17). They accept findings of eavesdropping.
Integrity Commissioner’s report on the incident
On Feb 26 2015, Ferguson complains report didn’t fully clear him and Basse calls the media to back Ferguson up

On Feb 27th 2015, Ontario Ombudsman Andre Marin Tweets his criticisms of the report

On Feb 27th 2015, Basse speaks with Spectator columnist Andrew Dreschel, saying he has a gut “feeling” about Coleman
Detailed photos of the Ombudsman’s marked up report – Page OnePage TwoPage ThreePage FourPage Five
On Mar 2nd 2015, Clr. Merulla promises a motion to correct the shortcomings of Basse Report
On Mar 3 2015, the Spectator calls on the Council to not Sanction Ferguson and not reconsider the Basse Report
On Mar 3rd 2015, the Spectator writes an editorial, “The Spectator’s View: What changed on flawed integrity report?”
On Mar 4 2015, Ferguson apologizes to Council. Council now stands by Basse Report and Ferguson declares himself “vindicated
On Mar 6 2015, Ferguson says he feels like “a punching bag”
On Mar 12th 2015, Hamilton Community News (Torstar weekly) write an editorial, “Wagging the dog at Hamilton City Hall.”
From the editorial: “For some politicians distracting the public with what is actually a minor dust up between an aggressive media person and a haggard politician serves the purpose of hiding the escalating problems of this council. “
Video of Brad Clark speaking about the incident from The Push, a documentary by Cody Lanktree. 
On Aug 22nd, 2015, the Spectator writes an editorial, “Time for the ‘The Shove’ to fade into memory,”
The beautiful velvet rope that a City Clerk placed to restrict access to the Council Chamber. Deputy Clerk Janet Pilon informed Coleman that this was to prevent further “eavesdropping” as per the Basse Report
The City’s website policy
The passage violated by Coleman: Unless prior written permission is obtained from the City, the Content’s owner and the City’s licensors, You may not reproduce, publish, copy, link to, frame, tag, embed, merge, modify, recompile, license, distribute, sell, store in an electronic retrieval system, download (except by the browser of a single user) or transmit, in whole or in part, in any form or by any means whatsoever, be they physical, electronic or otherwise, the Portal and/or the Content.
The RSS feed shared by Coleman
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