DAILY GLEANER - FREDERICTON, NEGLIGENT NEWSPAPER REPORTER DON MACPHERSON

DAILY GLEANER  - FREDERICTON, NEGLIGENT NEWSPAPER REPORTER

To Anne Mooers .....Managing Editor of the Daily Gleaner,

Ms Mooers,

This is to confirm my complaints about Don MacPherson's (picture provided below) inaccurate reporting that is damaging to the public interest.

Mr MacPherson does no investigative journalism whatsoever and stated that he just writes what he hears in court - well, he doesn't do that either. 

In the article of 24 Jan 2013 Mr MacPherson stated that it was Jenn Wambolt's lawyer who stated the option of sending Jenn to Campbellton for thirty days and it was not - it was the Crown Prosecutor who demanded that several times until the judge told him that was not going to happen and if Ms Wambolt did not want to go to Campbellton then he could not send her there for thirty days.

Mr MacPherson did not report that Claude Hache tried to violate Ms Wambolt's Charter Right and Freedom not to be involuntarily incarcerated without proof of its necessity.  The Crown Prosecutor filed no motion for the defense to respond to and neither filed nor presented any evidence whatsoever for the judge to contemplate taking this mother and wife away from her husband and children for thirty days - and did not ask for an opportunity to do this.

The Crown argued for Ms Wambolt's removal to Campbellton until the judge told him that it just wasn't going to happen and, since Ms Wambolt already has a psychiatrist they simply need to request his report on her mental health at the time of the alleged incident.

What is also disturbing about Mr MacPherson not fully reporting the facts of this story is the fact that the Crown Prosecution Services are wasting public money on a frivolous prosecution that was instigated by Barry MacKnight when he was Chief of Police, and behaving in a professionally questionable manner, which lead to Fredericton City Police Force receiving more complaints that any other in New Brunswick.  Not only is the Crown wasting money on unnecessary court proceedings against an unwell person, the Crown wanted to pay to transport her under guard to a public psychiatric facility for thirty days.  How much would that have cost this province?

When Mr MacPherson was reporting my own issues he incorrectly stated I had fired two legal aid lawyers; I wrote and told him this was wrong and I have evidence that they withdrew their service, which they had not grounds to do, and I requested that Mr MacPherson print a correction, since legal aid frequently dump clients without cause.  Mr MacPherson replied to me by email saying "It's just semantics."  Since when did inaccurate  and incorrect reporting become semantics?

While we have Blaine Higgs touring this province and the Government of New Brunswick scratching their heads to find ways to cut expenditure the Gleaner should be reporting such blatant and negligent wasting of money in the courts and the criminal justice system.

I look forward to your response.

Sarah Brooks