Fagstein » Pierre-Antoine-Tremblay http://blog.fagstein.com Can you think of a better name? Thu, 09 Feb 2012 22:54:01 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 Tremblay speaks out about Zeke’s suit http://blog.fagstein.com/2007/06/26/tremblay-speaks-out-about-zekes-suit/ http://blog.fagstein.com/2007/06/26/tremblay-speaks-out-about-zekes-suit/#comments Tue, 26 Jun 2007 20:16:00 +0000 Fagstein http://blog.fagstein.com/?p=457 Michel Leblanc has comments from Pierre-Antoine Tremblay justifying his court cases against blogger Chris Hand.

Tremblay's side has some valid points:

  • This isn't a case of freedom of speech, it's a libel case. Bloggers are just as responsible as media outlets as far as not using their right to free expression maliciously. Assuming Tremblay's interpretation of the original post is true (that Hand accuses him of fraud and links to the mafia), those are certainly things that someone could make a legitimate libel case out of.
  • Tremblay hasn't been charged with any of the crimes he's been associated with. His dispute with Loto-Quebec was settled out of court (the result is sealed), the paintings are still on display, and he hasn't been accused of any direct links to Frank Martorana or other members of the mafia.
  • He's not a rich mogul looking to shut down a blog. His injunction is very specific, and doesn't even prevent Hand from discussing Tremblay, just from repeating the allegations.
  • Hand was clearly exacerbating the situation through other media until recently when his lawyer told him to clam up.

On the other hand, he doesn't answer some of Chris Hand's main criticisms:

  • Why hasn't Tremblay attempted to contact Hand about all this, instead of issuing threatening lawyer's letters every couple of weeks?
  • Why not have Hand simply correct the post, which he indicates he was perfectly willing to do, instead of bringing him to court?
  • Why is the Loto-Quebec press release, which Tremblay says is false, still available to the public? How are we supposed to know that the paintings weren't fake (if that is indeed the case) if the settlement is secret?
  • Why is he suing for $25,000, and now trying to increase that to $60,000?
  • Why not simply try to settle the case out of court, since both sides are poor and the only people to win here are the lawyers?

Either way, unless these two can start talking to each other like humans, a judge is going to decide which story is more sympathetic. And lots of money and time is going to be wasted on both sides.

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]]> http://blog.fagstein.com/2007/06/26/tremblay-speaks-out-about-zekes-suit/feed/ 1 Zeke maintains status quo in court http://blog.fagstein.com/2007/06/21/zekes-in-court/ http://blog.fagstein.com/2007/06/21/zekes-in-court/#comments Thu, 21 Jun 2007 17:39:02 +0000 Fagstein http://blog.fagstein.com/?p=433 Chris Hand, the Zeke behind Zeke's Gallery, spent most of today in the Palais de Justice with his lawyer and mother. At issue was an injunction which stops Hand from making specific statements about Pierre-Antoine Tremblay, an art dealer who is suing him for libel.

After hearing about an hour's worth of arguments from both sides, the judge has ordered a renewal of the existing injunction against Hand, but without changes asked by the plaintiff (those seemed centred around preventing Hand from using other media to make statements against Mr. Tremblay). The injunction prohibits Chris Hand from saying that Pierre-Antoine Tremblay is associated with Frank Martorana and the mafia, or that he tried to sell fake paintings to Loto-Quebec. Both statements Tremblay's lawyer says are entirly false.

The injunction lasts until Sept. 6, 2007, when further hearings will take place on this matter.

Among other things of note:

  • Tremblay wasn't present in court.
  • Tremblay and his lawyer have increased their monetary demands. What was once $25,000 is now $60,000.
  • Hand was barely recognizable. His hippie haircut has been replaced with a professional-looking crewcut. He sat well-behaved in a suit (no tie) and didn't bite the head off even one chicken throughout the proceedings.
  • The proceedings were held entirely in French, except for what was read from blog posts and newspaper articles.
  • From the plaintiff's lawyer: "Comment ça se dit en français 'quack'?" Hand's mother tried to explain before Chris cut her off and explained that she's helping opposing council.
  • Legal chit-chat between the lawyers and court reporter are always cute. They talk about the temperature of the drinking water in the courtroom, or what lawyer was at which firm when, or about the noise of construction on the floors above them.
  • Shout-outs to Montreal Tech Watch and Hou-Hou Blog whose posts were used in evidence by the plaintiff. No mention of my huge post, but my article did get quoted so I won't complain.
  • Both lawyers were very effective at pleading their case. The plaintiff's arguments boiled down to the fact that this is a very specific injunction (the facts of the libel case weren't argued today), that Hand is using other media (Yahoo! Groups, other blogs, personal communication at YULblog meetings) to repeat the same allegedly libellous claims, and that Zeke's Gallery is in competition with Tremblay's Galerie 2000 (a claim Chris calls an exaggeration).
  • There are still three related cases pending. All have been postponed to Sept. 6:
    • The injunction preventing Hand from making these statements about Tremblay
    • A contempt of court charge for allegedly ignoring the previous injunction
    • The libel case itself
  • Tremblay's lawyer said outright that the paintings sold to Loto-Quebec were not forged. This is the first complete denial of this charge I've heard. The out-of-court settlement between Tremblay and Loto-Quebec is secret, but I'd love to find out what the real story is behind it.
  • The Zeke's Gallery blog remains effectively shut down. Hand isn't sure if he'll bring it back, even if he ends up winning the case.

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]]> http://blog.fagstein.com/2007/06/21/zekes-in-court/feed/ 9 What about Mr. Tremblay? http://blog.fagstein.com/2007/06/20/what-about-mr-tremblay/ http://blog.fagstein.com/2007/06/20/what-about-mr-tremblay/#comments Thu, 21 Jun 2007 03:31:42 +0000 Fagstein http://blog.fagstein.com/?p=431 Michel Leblanc has an interesting on-the-other-hand take to the Zeke's Gallery situation. He points out that Tremblay hasn't been convicted of anything, and just because the media accuses him of something doesn't make it true.

The point is well taken. Chris Hand shouldn't be immune from prosecution for libel just because he's a blogger.

But this whole mess was caused by Tremblay himself, who instead of sending an email with his side of the story (a side he hasn't expressed publically, in part because of a confidentiality agreement with the Loto-Quebec thing and in part because he's just chosen not to) sent a lawyer's letter to Hand. Then, when Hand complied with the letter, he sent another more threatening one making more demands.

Tremblay (as far as I know) didn't sue Radio-Canada, Le Devoir or the other media who first made these claims about him (UPDATE: He sued La Presse, who made much more outlandish statements about him, and lost). And despite an agreement which Tremblay implies was in his favour (as the paintings are still on display), the original press release which accused Tremblay of fraud is still online.

Hand and Tremblay (or their lawyers) meet in front of a judge tomorrow. Let's hope they can still resolve this amicably.

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]]> http://blog.fagstein.com/2007/06/20/what-about-mr-tremblay/feed/ 3 Zeke’s Gallery scandal explained (UPDATED) http://blog.fagstein.com/2007/06/18/zekes-gallery-scandal-explained/ http://blog.fagstein.com/2007/06/18/zekes-gallery-scandal-explained/#comments Tue, 19 Jun 2007 03:04:09 +0000 Fagstein http://blog.fagstein.com/?p=414 UPDATE: Tremblay speaks out.

The local blogosphere is abuzz with outrage over the situation affecting the Zeke's Gallery blog, whose posts have now all disappeared. I wrote about the case in The Gazette last week.

There's some misinformation and faulty assumptions going around, so I'm going to do the best I can to explain what exactly happened here, in chronological order.


Feb. 7, 2003: Radio-Canada reports that Pierre-Antoine Tremblay, an art dealer/agent, sold 26 paintings to Loto-Quebec for $130,000, and that the paintings' authenticity are in doubt. It also mentions that Tremblay has been accused of fraud dozens of times in the past decade.

Feb. 14, 2003: Le Devoir goes into more detail about the story, which is more about Tremblay's boss at the SAQ, Gaëtan Frigon, who also ran Loto-Quebec, and the apparent conflicts of interest that led to Frigon's departure from Loto-Quebec.

March 5, 2003: Loto-Quebec issues a press release saying that they have confirmed at least one work sold to them by Tremblay is "forged" and another is of "questionable authenticity".

Nov. 24, 2006: The National Post publishes an article about Frank Martorana, a car dealer who police determined was involved with the Rizzuto crime family. The article makes no mention of Tremblay. Some time prior to this date (probably June 2, 2005), an article appears on this website about Martorana, saying he owned a Japanese restaurant with Tremblay and stole paintings from Tremblay's gallery. (Tremblay would later clarify that the business relationship was with Martorana's wife, not Martorana himself).

Nov. 25, 2006: Chris Hand posts an item to his blog about the National Post article, and includes links to the previous news stories:

Howdy!

According to this article, a guy named Frank Martorana was in business with Pierre-Antoine Tremblay, who tried to sell some fake paintings to Loto-Quebec. Because of him, a bunch of different police forces here in Canada started to investigate the Mafia for something like five years, and resulted in them arresting a gazillion and a half people on Thursday.

This might even be a better story than Victor Pellerin.

April 10, 2007: Louis Frédéricq Carmichael, who represents Tremblay, sends a mise en demeure to Hand. It takes issue with the sentence that begins "Because of him", because it seems to say things about Tremblay which are actually true about Martorana. It threatens and injunction if the post is not corrected immediately and says that he will be checking the site every hour.

April 14, 2007: Hand says he receives the mise en demeure on this day. He says he immediately called Carmichael and left a message.

April 16, 2007: Hand posts a scanned copy of the mise en demeure to the blog, along with an explanation saying Tremblay "doesn't like this here blog".

April 17, 2007: Hand says Carmichael returns Hand's message and explains that Tremblay wants the post fixed to make it clear that he's talking about Martorana, not Tremblay. Hand edits the post (replacing "because of him" with "because of Martorana") and laments that he won't be going to court after all over this. (My post on this)

April 19, 2007: Carmichael issues a second mise en demeure, saying he is "surprised" to see the first go online (clearly Carmichael doesn't know Hand very well). He says Hand's attitude is only escalating the situation, and that legal action is being planned. He makes three demands that were not present in the original mise en demeure:

  1. Remove any suggestion that Tremblay owns Galerie 2000 Inc. (Hand contends to this day he can find no post on his blog that makes this claim)
  2. Remove any suggestion that Tremblay was "associated" with Martorana. (It objects to the "sous-entendus" that Tremblay might have been associated with the mafia)
  3. Remove any suggestion that Tremblay tried to sell forged paintings to Loto-Quebec. (It notes that an out-of-court settlement was reached without Tremblay admitting fault and the paintings are still at Loto-Quebec)

April 20, 2007: Hand receives the second letter. He calls Carmichael the next day and leaves another message. Hand says Carmichael never returns the call.

April 23, 2007: Hand posts the second letter on his blog. (My post on this notes that other bloggers are now starting to pay attention to the case)

May 14, 2007: Carmichael files an injuncton request, repeating the three demands of the second letter and demanding $25,000 from Hand.

May 17, 2007: Not to sound like a broken record or anything, but Hand posts the injunction request (at least the first page -- it's 17 pages long) to the blog.

May 29, 2007: Tremblay wins the first round in court, getting a temporary injunction forcing the posts off the blog. Hand, of course, posts the judgment to his blog the next day and removes the posts. (My post on this)

May 31, 2007: The first media coverage of the case in Hour.

June 6, 2007: Hand shows up to a YULblog meeting with documents in hand, enlisting the support of local bloggers in his cause.

June 9, 2007: My article in The Gazette. I'm promptly Geisted.

June 16, 2007: The Globe and Mail publishes an article about blogs and libel chill, mentioning Hand prominently. My post on the subject opines that bloggers don't deserve special treatment compared to the rest of the media.

June 18, 2007: On the advice of his lawyer, Hand removes access to all posts on the Zeke's Gallery blog.

June 21, 2007: Hand is in court to fight a permanent injunction. The judge renews the injunction, but without increased restrictions demanded by the plaintiff.

June 26, 2007: Blogger Michel Leblanc publishes a statement from Tremblay explaining that he's a poor businessman just trying to clear his good name. I examine some points and counter-points.

Sept. 6, 2007: Next day in court for this case and related cases.

Other blog coverage of this case:

Other resources:

My take: Tremblay's attempt to clear his name in a libel case that may or may not have merit has backfired dramatically, and no amount of legal action will make people like him better. Both will have to spend money on lawyers, money they probably won't be refunded. As a result, Hand will be a lot more self-censoring in the future.

On the other hand, this isn't half as important as some people make it out to be. It's not the death of free speech in Canada any more than the multi-million-dollar Pants Lawsuit is the death of dry-cleaning. It's an overzealous litigator going after a small-guy loud-mouth for libel. It's happened before, and it'll happen again.

The real problem here isn't with Canadian media law, it's with the power of lawsuits to intimidate those people without the power to defend themselves.

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