Charges against G20 blogger dropped
Posted November 8, 2012 10:21 am.
This article is more than 5 years old.
Charges against G20 blogger Dan Kellar have been dropped by the Crown, he told CityNews.ca.
Kellar, 30, was charged with criminal harassment, counselling to commit assault and intimidation after writing about his experience with two undercover police officers leading up to the June 2010 G20 summit in Toronto.
But the Crown dropped those charges on Thursday morning during a court appearance at Old City Hall in Toronto, he said.
The activist said he was relieved.
“It was a stressful thing to be living under absurd charges for 18 months,” he said.
“It’s obvious they were trying to punish me for my activism not for doing anything illegal.”
Kellar was arrested on Aug. 25, 2011, after he posted comments about the undercover officers on his blog.
Kellar said the officers had posed as his friend, and one of them even visited him at home and at work.
He was first charged with two counts of criminal defamation and counselling to commit assault. The defamation charges were withdrawn but additional charges of criminal harassment and intimidation were laid.
He was released on bail after promising to remove the post and not publish anything online about the two agents.
Another G20 blogger, Julian Ichim, was charged with breaking a publication ban after he wrote about his experience with an undercover police officer.
Ichim refused to remove the post.
He will appear in court on Nov. 16.
