MONIED INTERESTS, SLAPP SUITS & FREEDOM OF SPEECH

Last November 20, 2014 the Waterloo Region Record published their Editorial titled "Chilling days for Canadian writers". "...award winning Guelph writer Tom King suggested the climate for tackling certain "hard hitting" subjects is more challenging than ever.". "King who has also won such awards as the RBC Taylor Prize for "The Inconvenient Indian" adds a weighty name to the list of those who have claimed that greater public attention and action is needed in the area of strategic litigation launched to limit public participation and discourse surrounding criticism of powerful entities linked to sensitive subjects.'. The acronym for this lengthy discription of the problem is "SLAPP" suit or Strategic Lawsuit Against Public Participation. That is exactly its' purpose. I myself have been a victim of such behaviour.

When a monied individual or corporation don't like legitimate criticism, they abuse the legal system in order to get their way. The problem is that the entire legal system is already based upon abuse of citizens hence the judicial system don't even blink an eye at this abuse. More grist for the mill as judges and lawyers just keep on rolling in the big money while honest citizens go bankrupt trying to extricate themselves from the further abuses of our legal system. It is intentionally obtuse, glacially slow and fraught with legal loopholes specifically to enhance the need to bankrupt ourselves to the benefit of the legal system participants. Looked at this way why would the legal system themselves try to discourage frivolous or vexatious laswuits from anyone?