Irving Paper did a good Job covering the Blogger issues....

Fredericton’s best-known activist blogger is on the hunt for evidence that would prove his allegation that the Fredericton Police Force influenced or interfered with his assault investigation. Charles Joseph LeBlanc, 55, of 1-145 Westmorland St. made his first appearance Monday in provincial court to answer to a count of summary assault, alleging an incident involving complainant Andrew Spencer in downtown Fredericton on July 3. LeBlanc was joined by a handful of supporters in the courtroom. Though the incident leading to the charge occurred in Fredericton, the matter was investigated by the Miramichi Police Force, which also laid the charge in Fredericton provincial court. The Fredericton Police Force farmed the case out to the outside agency because it has a tumultuous history with LeBlanc. The controversial blogger told Judge Brian McLean on Monday morning he wasn’t prepared to enter a plea and that he had some questions. He first asked on the record if the disclosure package he’d already received from the Crown was complete and if the documents represented true copies of the evidence and reports. Prosecutor Cory Roberts confirmed that was the case. Then LeBlanc asked for copies of all emails between the Fredericton Police Force and its Miramichi counterpart in the case. Roberts said LeBlanc could ask the Crown prosecutors’ office and someone could look into the issue to see if there was anything available on that point. McLean adjourned the case to Feb. 16 for plea. “This has Fredericton police all over it,” LeBlanc told reporters outside the Justice Building on Monday following his court appearance. The Fredericton Police Force declined to comment on the allegation Monday. “Given the difficult and public relationship between Mr. LeBlanc and the Fredericton Police Force, at [police Chief Leanne Fitch’s] request, an outside agency was sought to assess and investigate the complaint,” spokeswoman Alycia Morehouse wrote in an email. “Miramichi police agreed to do it, therefore any questions pertaining to the investigation must be directed to them.” Sgt. Jody Whyte of the Miramichi Police Force said the Fredericton force had nothing to do with the assault probe. “It was investigated by our agency,” he said. To his knowledge, Whyte said, the Fredericton police’s only involvement in the file would have been to request the Miramichi police to conduct the investigation, to receive a heads-up about the results of the investigation and for a Fredericton officer to give a fellow officer from Miramichi a ride to LeBlanc’s home to serve him a summons for court. LeBlanc has protested the city police force’s enforcement of cycling bylaws, suggested online the force is harbouring pedophiles and steroid users among its membership, and has alleged harassment. The blogger points to his video-recording of a rough arrest effected by a member of the Fredericton force that was ultimately used as evidence against the officer in an assault trial. That officer was acquitted, but LeBlanc points to that situation as the trigger for a campaign by the force to get back at him. Members of the city police also raided his apartment three years ago and arrested him as part of a criminal libel investigation that alleged LeBlanc had unjustly smeared another one of its officers. The case was scuttled when the Crown declined to prosecute, noting constitutional issues had arisen in other jurisdictions with that particular section of the Criminal Code of Canada. LeBlanc learned last year that a document filed with his Internet service provider as part of that libel investigation referred to a child sex exploitation investigation. The police force has explained it was a clerical error, as the document used in the case is typically filed with ISPs to get evidence in child-pornography cases, not libel matters. LeBlanc has rejected that explanation, alleging the force was purposefully trying to label him a pedophile. In turn, he started suggesting on his blog that several members of the city police were pedophiles. A complaint from City of Fredericton chief administrative officer Chris MacPherson to the free hosting service owned by Google about those comments led Google to take the blog down in its entirety last year. LeBlanc has alleged the city has violated his right to free speech. He has since launched a new blog on the same free hosting service, on which he has alleged that while the Miramichi police investigated the new assault complaint, the Fredericton Police Force has had its hands all over the case as part of its alleged vendetta against him. “This is a waste of taxpayers’ money,” the blogger told reporters Monday. LeBlanc told the court he hadn’t consulted with duty counsel Monday morning, and he told reporters later he didn’t know if he’d apply for legal aid. He also noted in court his first court appearance on the Spencer assault complaint was three years to the day Fredericton police raided his apartment for the libel investigation. The blogger also pointed out the new assault charge was laid the day before the limitation for the summary charge would have run out. With a summary assault matter, police have six months from the time of the allegation to file a charge. Miramichi police laid the July 3 charge in Fredericton court on Jan. 2, which was a Friday. LeBlanc told reporters the police didn’t conduct a full investigation and didn’t ask him for his side of the story. However, he then admitted the Miramichi police did contact him for a statement, offering to meet with him either at the Fredericton police station or to drive him up to the Miramichi and back. “I didn’t feel comfortable,” he told reporters, noting he’d rather give a statement over a cup of coffee instead of in a police interview room on video.