Whats on trial here is what actually constitutes harassment.
You have an interesting take on this issue. I don’t see it like that, but maybe you are right.
Does rebroadcasting someone elses public broadcast count as harassment?
Rebroadcasting?
The answer is 'yes'.
The case below is a little bit related.
Jennifer Pawluck from Montreal was convicted of criminally harassing a police officer by posting an image of a painting on social media (Instagram), along with a threatening hashtag.
Pawluck did not create the painting- she simply took a digital photo, and "re-broadcasted" it using social media. The actual person who created the painting was never identified.
March 2013 - Jennifer Pawluck posted (on Instagram) a photo she took on the streets of Montreal: a graffiti painting depicting what appears to be a Montreal police officer, Commander Ian Lafrenière, with what appears to be a bullet hole in his forehead.
Pawluck later added the hashtags “Un flic, une balle” (one cop, one bullet) and “All Cops Are Bastards” and made sure to get the spelling of Lafrenière’s name right (she had to correct it once). She also added a hashtag linking it to Montreal police social media pages.
April 2013 - Pawluck is charged and arrested
Later in court, police Commander Lafrenière testified that knowledge that the graffiti was being shared shook him, scared his children and forced his wife to take a leave from work.
According to the Montreal Gazette: The case boiled down to .....
** Whether Pawluck should have known a person would feel threatened by what she posted, AND
** Whether Lafrenière has reasonable grounds to feel threatened.
The Criminal Code makes clear that a threat doesn’t have to be repeated, and can involve one single action, in order to be considered criminal harassment. Pawluck testified that the posting was intended as a general criticism of the Montreal police and that she didn’t intend to threaten Lafrenière. She testified that she didn’t know who he was when she posted the image.
