Radio personality and opposition activist Colin Graham has issued a public apology to Justice Brian Cottle and Senior Counsel Anthony Astaphan for statements he made on social media after Monday’s ruling in the election petitions that are before the court.
It is not clear what were Graham’s orifinaly comments, which he said he deleted from Facebook, where they were posted.
Graham issued the following statement on his Facebook page on Tuesday:
“Yesterday, 4th April 2016, shortly after delivery of the judgment on the application by the Supervisor of Elections to strike out the petitions of Mr. Ben Exeter and Mr. Lauron Baptiste, I made certain comments on my personal Facebook page.
“Those comments concerned His Lordship Mr. Justice Brian Cottle, who judged the matter, and Senior Counsel Mr Anthony Astaphan, who represented the Supervisor of Elections and other Respondents in the matter.
“I unreservedly and unequivocally apologise for my comments, which were baseless and inappropriate and which were made in the heat of the moment.
“The comments were taken down by me yesterday and in their place today I offer this apology.
I wish to make it very clear that my comments were not in any way sanctioned by the New Democratic Party, and do not in any way reflect the NDP’s position on the judgment, Justice Cottle, or Mr. Astaphan SC.”
Graham is an activist for the New Democratic Party and a radio announcer at Hot 97 FM.
Colin Graham, among other NDP supporters too numerous to mention, is why the NDP is still not ready to rule Hairoona after 14 plus years in the political wilderness.
Will another 14 years be needed to get these neanderthals to clean up their act? Seems likely to me.
Apart from the issue of defamation do these personalities not realise the importance of not prejudging matters that are before the court? It is just appalling the way a number of these social media and radio personalities go about making pronouncements on the legal issues and on the various actors in the court proceedings. Can some lawyer not educate these people about the sub judice rule? Frankly I think the court should impose a gag order on anyone commenting on this case in a way that prejudges it. Anyone who breaches the order should be sanctioned for contempt of court. There’s just way too much nonsensical commentary on this case out there in the public domain.