First major victory for blogs in Québec and in Canada (3)
August 24th, 2007 · by Heri · web2.0
The Sureté du Québec admitted early yesterday that they actually used undercover cops, disguised as protesters at the Montebello summit. Patrick Lagacé, reporter at La presse, also a blogger, hailed it as the first mainstream victory for blogs in Quebec and a proof at the new media’s power, at an article published today at La Presse. Major press outlets didn’t broadcast the youtube video, while local blogs continued to buzz continuously about the incident. The SQ was then forced to admit the evidence.
Beyond SQ’s obvious amateurism and abuse of their mission, I agree with Patrick Lagacé’s analysis, and I think it’s a sign that blogs, and other new media initiatives, are now going to be take off in Québec.
That isn’t a victory the surete du quebec still managed to do what there true motive is. To stiffle dissent.
The point is that this is higher up than the surete du quebec and is part of a much bigger problem. The people in power are using backhanded techniques to make anyone protesting look bad.
In their admittance they say that the officers were discovered when they refused to throw rocks when the video clearly shows that they were asked to “drop the rock”. You see the whole point is to make protesters look bad and that’s their true mission, not the prevention of violence, they’re all for violence.
When this kind of BS happens in the States I feel helpless but when progaganda techniques are used on us Canadians I become livid and I act. It’s our duty to ask for resignation from officials.
The officers pushed protesters, told them repeatedly “va chier”, gave them the finger and say they were doing exactly the kind of work that their mission asks of them. Let’s not drop this. We should demand for the people responsible for these propaganda techniques to resign.
Gary: yes, this is a very serious matter, a move by the SQ that is close to fascism
i think they should make a public comission which will investigate wether SQ’s press release is true, and more importantly, if they used it in the past, and if they plan to do it again.
I agree this is a big step for new media, but Patrick Lagacé gets his chronology wrong. This wasn’t a case of the media ignoring an issue until blogs made it mainstream. The media heard about the video on Tuesday through a press release by the protesters. It was mere hours before the first news stories were produced based on it. Most of the bloggers found out about the video through the media.
The bloggers probably deserve credit for disseminating the photo of the boots, which wasn’t referenced in the early stories. But not the video, which was the big thing.
To be clear, this is a victory for new media: video and pictures produced by citizen journalists that showed questionable actions by the police. But blogs were just spectators here.
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