(Drawing of BC Human Rights Tribunal Hearing Room 4 - by Bulletproofcourier)
The pathetic thing about the BC Human Rights Tribunal is that they provide little room for public access to their "hearing". Normally, there probably isn't much of a demand and all kinds of "powerful" people can be run through the ringer by "victims" without the public ever knowing much about it - that's what I mean by pathetic. But the Lorna Pardy - Guy Earle - Zesty's case is receiving a lot of media attention. And since the BCHRT only provide 18 seats for the public AND the media, if the merely curious show up to take the seats, there are no seats for those intent on reporting the event. So far I can only find two reports on today's hearing (searching Google News and Blogs).
The Province reports:
Ismail testified that he stepped out of the eatery for brief walk when the incidents took place which escalated to a point where Pardy threw two glasses of water at Earle and the comedian took the sunglasses off Pardy’s head, broke then in two, and threw them at her.Pathetic journalism: the witness who contradicts Pardy's testimony (Pardy said she didn't heckle) isn't even named or described; we don't even know which side called him/her.
He also testified that Earle was not his employee, but rather a volunteer comedian who acted as MC.
“He was never employed,” said Ismail adding that he set up a tab of $50 for the comedians on open-mic nights.
The hearing, which continues Wednesday, also heard from two other witnesses. One testified that Pardy and her friends heckled Earle and insulted him, while another said Earle targeted the table where Pardy sat.
We don't learn much more from the discussion between Marcella Bernardo and Christy Clark on CKNW radio - audio here, starting at 37.25 minute mark. Christy and Marcella don't quite grasp the issues at stake, and they are themselves so offended by Guy Earle's words (as Lorna Pardy remembered them) that they just emotionally take the view that the "Human Rights" Tribunal needs to be around to punish him.
But we do learn one thing from Marcella's reporting: Lorna Pardy, in finishing her cross-examination today, had her back turned to both Sam (who was asking the questions) and Salaam (the restaurant owner) Ismail. I really don't know what that was about but if this were a real court and not the law-as-victim-therapy "human rights" hearing, I'd say she might have been hurting her case: would a real court take a person capable of such emotion or drama as a completely credible witness?
Bulletproofcourier and I will try to do some tag-team reporting if we can get a seat tomorrow (Wednesday).
UPDATE: See Brian Hutchinson's report on day two of the hearing to fill in the blanks.
1 comment:
Does anybody remember Pardy's insistence that the media was out to get her?
A witness contradicting her doesn't even make the news.
Yup, the media's just smearing the bejeezus out of Lorna Pardy. It's a crime, it is.
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