Giveaway newspapers set date for court collision over Montreal subway ride
ALLAN SWIFT
MONTREAL (CP) - Quebecor Inc. will have to continue distributing its free newspaper to commuters outside Montreal subway property until at least May 7 when the company gets to argue in court that it has the right to operate inside.
Lawyers for Quebecor and G.T.C. Transcontinental, which has an exclusive agreement with the city transit commission for inside distribution rights, met Wednesday to exchange documents and have a judge set the date to hear the case.
Transcontinental, a printing and publishing company, and its partner Metro International of Sweden, began distributing their 24-page newspaper on March 1.
Quebecor, whose Sun Media unit owns a free commuter tabloid in Toronto, began its Montreal version this week to protect the market share of its regular tabloid daily Le Journal de Montreal, the preferred subway newspaper.
However, subway security guards prevented Quebecor distributors from going inside.
Lawyer Michel Sylvestre said Quebecor will base its arguments on press-freedom provisions in the Quebec and Canadian charters of rights.
"Freedom of the press includes the right to distribute the press," Sylvestre said outside court Wednesday.
He said the Charter of Rights overrides commercial agreements.
Transcontinental lawyer Marc Andre Blanchard, said the transit commission has the right to manage events on its property, just as it allocates spaces for musical buskers.
"Otherwise Jehovah's Witnesses and communists and everybody will be down there passing out literature," he said.
The transit commission will get a minimum $900,000 in the first three years of the deal with Transcontinental, said spokeswoman Odile Paradis. If the deal is renewed for up to 10 years, it will get a minimum of $5 million.
In addition, Transcontinental had to pledge $188,000 to pay for cleanup.
Owners of subway kiosks also went to court Wednesday to get the transit corporation to cancel its agreement with the publishers of Metro, saying it cuts into their business. That case was also put off to a future date.
Paradis said circulation of paid-for papers has held fast in the 19 other cities where Metro International publishes commuter papers.
"Metro is more like a radio news bulletin," Paradis said. "It doesn't replace a daily paper."
A three-way battle of free newspapers which began last year in Toronto this week will come down to two, as Torstar Corp. and Metro International agreed this week to merge their free papers into one, competing with Toronto Sun's FYI.
Kent