After reading David Shawn Taylor’s HISTORY: British Columbia’s greatest judge deserves a fair trial of his own. ( published in the Armchair Mayor on Sept. 10, 2023 ) I have more historical details to add. I certainly agree with Taylor’s concern about how the widely respected and principled Sir Mathew Begbie is being wrongly maligned for the six chiefs’ hangings. As well, I agreed the history of what has become labelled The Chilcotin War remains confusing and I want to expand on why the ongoing discussion needs to continue. In my opinion, trying to erase B.C. Chief Justice Sir Matthew Begbie’s reputation of being a fair and respected judge, is a weird historical rewrite, benefitting no one .... CLICK HERE for the full commentary, used with permission from The Armchair Mayor
STEPHEN WOODWORTH -- Anyone with experience in courtrooms can tell you that there are many shades of factual assertions
It’s interesting to think about the conceptual differences between disinformation, opinion, and idiosyncratic interpretation of perceived phenomena. My perception is that most of what we see labelled as “disinformation” is, instead, one of the latter two phenomena. (Ironically, if I’m right, it amounts to characterizing claims of “disinformation” as either opinion or idiosyncratic interpretation.) So, the issue becomes, once we’ve gone to the trouble to properly conceptualize what “disinformation” actually means, then who decides whether any particular observation is “disinformation” rather than merely opinion or idiosyncratic interpretation? Anyone with experience in courtrooms can tell you that there are many shades of factual assertions. We expend enormous judicial effort to determine the truth in specific cases, when it really matters. To invest such enormous effort into determining the truth of the many factual assertions advanced in the ordinary discou