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.

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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



On Mar 3 2015, the Spectator On Mar 2nd 2015, Clr. Merulla promises a motion to correct the shortcomings of Basse ReportOn Mar 3 2015, the Spectator calls on the Council to not Sanction Ferguson and not reconsider the Basse Report

On Mar 4 2015, Ferguson apologizes to Council. Council now stands by Basse Report and Ferguson declares himself “ vindicated

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.

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 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