Far-Right Reaction To Tragic Shooting in Toronto Exactly As Expected

First, the most important part of this horrible tragedy is that two people, 10 year old Julianna Kozis and 18 year old Reese Fallon, were murdered and their names are the ones that should be remembered, not that of the murderer. As such I will as much as possible try to avoid using his name in this article.

When the shooting occurred, I was working on the article identifying the Montreal chapter leader of ID Canada. Initially the news that trickled in was that there were shots fired in Toronto's Danforth area. As time went on the full scope of the tragedy became apparent. Right now little is still known about the motives of the killer. A statement from his family suggests that he had struggled with mental illness since at least 2010 and was known to the police having been apprehended two times under the mental health act. A friend stated in an interview that eight years prior to the shooting the suspect had confided in his friend that he suffered depression and psychosis. Beyond this is all speculation at this point in time.

Sadly, the speculation and accusations began soon almost immediately as false news was being spread:

I feel weird sharing this fake garbage, but it's just one example of the shit that comes after mass shootings like the #TorontoShooting.

This site cites "eyewitness" reports of a "bearded" man. That adds up to "Muslim." A transparent act of #Islamophobiahttps://t.co/QqkzwjI5Ev

— Steven Zhou (@stevenzzhou) July 23, 2018

This blog has recorded many examples of the Islamophobes ARC monitors jumping to conclusions before more information is made available. I could provide the screen shots I've collected and posted elsewhere as examples, but I think a short and non-comprehensive list should suffice:

• Joking about the mass murder of young people assuming that the suspect was a Muslim only to learn that the suspect was a far-right extremist (they then simply dismissed him as crazy).
• Forest fires (including the one that devastated Fort McMurray) and prairie fires have been claimed as proof of a jihadist plot as Muslims have been accused of starting them.
• The massacre of six men at a mosque in Quebec City is still being claimed as either a false flag or having actually been carried out by Muslim extremists.
• The van attack in Toronto this past spring that left 10 dead and more than a dozen injured is still being claimed as an act of jihadist terrorism.
• There are many who suggest that Humboldt Broncos bus tragedy was an example of Islamic terrorism.

There are more examples than these on this blog. Feel free to peruse at your leisure.

I think my views concerning the rush to judgement in these cases as well as the most recent tragedy are summed up best by journalist Steven Zhou:

I wanna emphasize that this cautionary note isn't to say that the shooter isn't or can't be Muslim.

There's just not enough evidence to pin down the identity or motive of the shooter. https://t.co/9g1h4ui9XE

— Steven Zhou (@stevenzzhou) July 23, 2018

Here's the thing with fake news right after a shooting:

Baseless attribution of the shooter's motivation to whatever ideology w/o evidence actually has ~50% chance of being right.

No one will go after you if you're wrong, and it's "vindication" if ur right. #TorontoShooting

— Steven Zhou (@stevenzzhou) July 23, 2018

I've already seen two fake sources saying the shooting was done by an ISIS fanatic. With no real evidence cited.

Those who wanna believe this will pat themselves on the back if it actually turns out to be some Muslim guy. Except they never had any evidence. They just guessed.

— Steven Zhou (@stevenzzhou) July 23, 2018

It's a win-win situation essentially.

1. Ur wrong and fall silent. Lose nothing.

2. Ur right, the group you hate suffers bad PR, and the shitty fake news site you like gets vindication and a thin veneer of legitimacy.

— Steven Zhou (@stevenzzhou) July 23, 2018

Obv no one can say right now without insider info who the shooter was and why he killed ppl.

But just in case it IS a Muslim dude, I just wanna flip off those fucked up fake news blogs preemptively.

Fuck you lifeless idiots.

— Steven Zhou (@stevenzzhou) July 23, 2018

All of this was prior to learning the identity of the suspect and it holds true after learning the identity as well.

I spent much of the day scrolling through the usual profiles and groups on Facebook prior to and after the identity of the shooter was known. It was like a car accident that one couldn't look away from. The usual rage-filled comments were being posted prior to the name being released:

• Claiming that the shooter was a member of ISIS who had returned to Canada or was at least inspired by ISIS
• Blaming refugees, immigrants, and multiculturalism.
• Suggesting Trudeau and the Liberal Party had "blood on their hands" and were fully to blame (given that the shooter had been in the country since at least 2010, it's a bit of a stretch) with the more extreme demanding the execution of the prime minister and any Liberal or NDP supporter.
• Demands to end immigration, deport Muslims and "non-white" Canadians, and to close down mosques. 

I could post screen shots from any number of sources -- God knows disinformation was spreading like wildfire -- but I think a focus on a single case study should suffice:

Steven Myatt has become a bit of a nexus for spreading false information and whipping up his Islamophobic supporters into a frenzy. Examples of the subsequent comments are as follows:

Mark and Connie Fournier of Free Dominion Declare Bankruptcy

It has been a while since ARC last wrote about Mark and Connie Fournier of the (not so) dearly departed Free Dominion. While ARC certainly had a rather contentious relationship with the denizens of Free Dominion (they even inspired ARC's "History of Violence" article), their defamation of Mr. Richard Warman is what ultimately led to their precipitous downfall as the Fourniers and co-defendants lost a defamation suit to Mr. Warman.

The Fourniers decided to appeal the decision and attempted to crowdfund their effort which resulted in some rather interesting support:

• Winnicki Donates to Free Dominion's Warman Appeal
• Winnicki Donates to Free Dominion's Warman Appeal: Part II
• Winnicki Donates to Free Dominion's Warman Appeal: Part III

Though the writing was on the wall as others who had defamed Mr. Warman settled and apologized, the Fourniers stubbornly soldiered on. 

They chose.... poorly

Since then it seems that Mr. Warman has spent at least some time trying to get Mark and Connie to pay the damage and costs, but they seem to be rather recalcitrant. 

And as of yesterday....

Mr. Warman posted the following regarding the declaration of bankruptcy:

26 January 2018 

Connie Fournier is bankrupt. Mark Fournier is bankrupt. 

I suppose that as between honouring the payment plan they agreed to or bankruptcy, it had to come to this. 

As readers may recall, Connie Fournier and Mark Fournier published defamatory attacks against me through their website forum Freedominion (RIP). I asked them to remove the material and while they initially did so, they then refused to remove further defamatory material that was posted by their users or themselves. 

I sued them for libel. The Fourniers demanded a jury trial and their day in court. After a three-week trial, the jury found the Fourniers and their fellow defendants had defamed me and awarded me $42,000 in general, aggravated, and punitive damages. The judge also ordered the defendants to pay me $85,000 in legal costs. 

The Fourniers appealed to the Ontario Court of Appeal and lost spectacularly there too. The Court of Appeal ordered them to pay me a further $23,000 in costs. 

The Fourniers agreed to pay me the jury’s award of damages and costs at a rate of $500/month. They made 2 payments but then there were always reasons why they couldn’t pay the next month and then they just went silent. It wasn’t like they weren’t earning income – at the first judgment debtor exam, they estimated that Mark’s income from truck driving earned them $30,000-$50,000 per year. For her part, Connie had been voluntarily or otherwise unemployed or underemployed for years despite advertising herself as a computer programmer. 

Tired of waiting for the Fourniers or Godot to show up with the money they said they’d pay me, I recently arranged for them to attend a new judgment debtor examination where my lawyer would ask them why they hadn’t honoured the payment plan they agreed to and they would produce all of their financial records showing their ability to pay the judgment.

Now if Mark and Connie thought that this would means to avoid any legal obligations, there is some very bad news for them:

Instead of attending the examination they agreed to they decided to go bankrupt instead. They have the legal ability to do that, but the Courts have said repeatedly that people who try to take advantage of bankruptcy protection to avoid paying civil judgments against them shouldn’t emerge from bankruptcy until they’ve paid at least 1/2 of their outstanding debts. Given they owe in excess of $100,000, Connie Fournier and Mark Fournier have likely condemned themselves to a lifetime status as bankrupts. 

Sad but true…

However, Mr. Warman does include a postscript that may, if the Fourniers take up the offer, might help them to get out of the hole they have dug for themselves:

NB – The Fourniers were always successful at crowdfunding money to support their defence. I’d be happy to endorse or run a similar campaign now in their hour of need to pay off their debt and would donate all the money raised to charities or non-profits. I would also deduct an equivalent amount from the 50% of their outstanding debt to me before I would no longer object to them emerging from bankruptcy. The Fourniers and charities/non-profits would benefit – sounds like a win-win. Ball is in their court.

So we'll see what happens.

What I do know is that I have better taste in music than Mr. Warman:

Anti-Omar Khadr Rally Planned For July 16 on Parliament Hill: An Examination of One of the Organizers

The story that has dominated much of the media cycle during the early days of this month has been the settlement made to Omar Khadr who at 15, was accused of killing American special forces soldier Sgt. Christopher Speer. Khadr was held at Guantanamo for a decade before he was returned to serve the rest of his sentence in Canada. During this time the Supreme Court ruled that the Canadian government's interrogation of Khadr, "offends the most basic Canadian standards about the treatment of detained youth suspects." The settlement and apology were as a result of a civil suit Khadr brought against the Canadian government claiming the government had worked with the American government to abuse his rights. He also suggested that his plea agreement was based on his belief that it was the only chance he would have to be transferred back to Canada from Guantanamo and that he had no memory of the firefight that resulted in the death of Sgt. Speer. To be sure, there has been a debate not only about the treatment of someone who would be considered a child soldier, but also whether or not he actually threw the grenade in the first place.

Obviously this story has polarized Canadians. While I agree with the settlement and with Prime Minister Trudeau's justification that the Charter needs to be protect all Canadians, including Khadr whom the Supreme Court ruled had his rights violated, there are a number of people who I normally agree with and whom I respect a great deal who disagree with the settlement. I have had some very good discussions with these individuals about their concerns and while I don't agree, I understand where they are coming from. However there also those who are attempting to use this issue as a cudgel to win political points. Personally, I don't believe Ezra Levant, Andrew Scheer, or the people this blog covers who are apoplectic about the settlement actually give a damn about Sgt. Speer's widow and simply view this as a means of attacking the government. In fact, the rhetoric involved clearly indicates an antipathy towards not only Omar Khadr, but Muslims in general and the virulent Islamophobia that has been a feature of conservative politics since Stephen Harper first began talking about "old stock Canadians" and Kellie Leitch tried to emulate Donald Trump's xenophobia in her failed bid in the Conservative leadership race.

And so it isn't at all surprising to see two extremely partisan Conservative operatives and activists organizing a rally on Parliament Hill for July 16:

I'll get to Georgeanne Burke and Debbie Jodoin in a moment, but some of the initial comments left on the page are as follows:

Considering Khadr was born in Canada, deportation would be difficult, then again....

.... Ms. Burke seems to agree with you.

Who Supports Kellie Leitch's Canadian Values Test? A Case Study

When we wrote about Conservative leadership candidate Kellie Leitch's call for testing would-be immigrants to determine if the possessed "anti-Canadian values" that should disqualify those immigrants as potential citizens, we noted that this proposal had all the hallmarks of dog whistle politics; she could claim that her proposal didn't target any particular group while appealing to people who hear the whistle as targeting Muslim immigrants as well as Muslims who were already citizens either by birth or naturalization. We also noted the irony that many of those who support Ms. Leitch's proposal, by their own rhetoric, often embody the anti-Canadian values that the proposal aims to eliminate such as intolerance towards other religions and homosexuals as well as violent and misogynistic behavior.

With this in mind, we decided to examine the views of one specific individual who supports Ms. Leitch and her proposal and who is a familiar character profiled here on the blog, albeit one whom we haven't mentioned in some time since the demise of Free Dominion, as a sort of case study:

Ed Kennedy has remained quite busy since his regular stomping grounds at Free Dominion ceased to provide him an avenue for his bigotry. He actually started his own website a bit before Free Dominion shut down, perhaps because he could see the writing on the wall (or perhaps because even the folks at Free Dominion were growing weary of him). In any case, he has continued to provide his limited readership with his wit and wisdom.... usually involving attacking "lieberals", "feminazis", African-American protesters, Muslims, homosexuals, and his own extended family in a series of bizarre rants regarding an inheritance he believed he should have received from a diseased aunt of whom he has nothing positive to say about.

Kennedy believes Leitch's proposal is "common sense" though he doesn't seem to realize that, given Leitch's criteria, Kennedy's own views could be deemed to be anti-Canadian. In fact he appears to violate the value of religious tolerance in his explanation of why he supports Ms. Leitch's proposal:

Ezra Levant Not Entirely Certain Soldiers of Odin Are A "Thing"

While we were working on our commentary yesterday on Mack Lamoureux's CBC story covering the  activities of the Soldiers of Odin in Edmonton, we were also following an interesting exchange between Mr. Lamoureux and Ezra Levant on Twitter. Sadly, as Ezra isn't a fan of ours....

.... we may have been only able to see one side of the discussion.

Unless we had a second Twitter account. Which, of course, we do.

Now, from this part of the exchange, Ezra seems to be suggesting that the Soldiers of Odin are actually a figment of Mr. Lamoureux's imagination. However, Ezra does clarify his position that he believes the SoO are exist, but only as a vehicle to entrap poor, dumb, disenfranchised, "old stock" Canadians:

March 2016 Bits and Bites: PEGIDA/JDL Protest Bust, Your Ward News in Warman's Cross-hairs, and Free Dominion News

We'll be posting an article detailing Canadians United 4 Canada's links to racist boneheads and an article to be published soon, but in the meantime we thought we would provide our readers a little bit of irony today:

But we do digress.

When we reported that the JDL was holding an event featuring PEGIDA UK speaker Paul Weston, we noted that there were plans to protest outside the location where the presentation was taking place.

Ron Banerjee, noticing that we had provided details about the counterprotest, claimed that his one man organization Canadian Hindu Advocacy and his mostly one man organization Rise Canada would discuss providing security for the event.

The JDL's Meir Weinstein, a man who has helped to promote Banerjee in the past and who has also both justified and refused to condemn Banerjee's racist, misogynistic, anti-Sikh, Islamophobic, and now Christophobic rhetoric.... well.... he seemed rather unamused:

The event did take place though and Banerjee did attend, as did it seems at least a few members of PEGIDA Canada:

Free Dominion Lost Appeal

Hey, remember when Richard Warman sued Free Dominion and a number of "John Does" (some of who's identities were learned, thus losing "John Doe" status)? And remember how excited the Free Dominion Folks were that they would be able to argue their case in front of a jury of their peers, confident that they would be able to use the opportunity to "expose" Mr. Warman?

Yeah, that didn't go well.

Instead of quitting while they were well behind, Free Dominion and the Fourniers decided to appeal, using crowdfunding platforms such as GoFundMe to raise the necessary cash.

Last week the Ontario Court of Appeal hear their case. Today a decision was rendered.

If it is at all possible, it went even more poorly for the respondents who are now, in addition to the general, aggravated, punitive damages as well as court costs amounting to a total of $104,900, they are now also on the hook for an additional $23,000 in court costs for the appeal.

In short, the court said that in addition to the legal merits of Mr. Warman's defamation suit being perfectly sound, that Free Dominion and the Fournier's own legal strategy did them in and as such they can't complain that it didn't work out as they had anticipated.

To further shorten, it would appear that they may not have received the best legal advice.

Shorter? Their lawyer was crappy.

As of now Free Dominion's forum is down. Perhaps for the count? Time will tell.

The Aftermath of a Tragedy

One would have to be living under a rock to not have heard about the horrific attacks in Paris that occurred on November 13. A total (as of this date) of 130 dead and 368 injured in what must be described as an act of cowardice by people subscribing to a twisted and evil ideology. A day before a car bombing in Beirut, Lebanon killed 43 people and prior to that 18 people attending a wedding were killed in Baghdad, Iraq. On November 17, 37 people were killed in Nigeria in a bombing that experts suspect was the handiwork of Boko Haram (who have pledged intelligence to Daesh). Just yesterday we learned that at least 21 people were killed in Mali. And today in Cameroon at least 5 people have been killed in a suicide bombing.

Those killed and injured run the gambit of ethnic, national, and religious origins and include Muslims among their numbers. Looking at the names and countries of origins for those victims of the Paris attack indicates a number of Muslims were killed and injured by extremists. In fact, the religious group most adversely affected by Daesh and their affiliates are Muslims, which is why so many refugees are fleeing Daesh in Syria.

The Canadian government is still admirably committed to taking in 25,000 Syrian refugees by the end of the calendar year. This writer hopes that is just the beginning of Canada's commitment to help refugees. But, despite the good will of the Canadian government (thus far) and most Canadians, there have been a backlash against both the idea of helping refugees as well as Muslim-Canadians.

Much of the backlash comes from places that are not at all unexpected. For example when a mosque was set on fire in Peterborough, Ontario, Kyle McKee and the folks at Stormfront were pleased as punch:

Ezra Is Getting Good At Begging For Forgiveness: Part II

We're working on a few projects that are currently occupying our collective attention, but we thought we would provide an update on our previous post.

To recap, Levant's "Rebel Media" ran a book review of Connie Fournier's book excoriating the Harper Conservatives. However, the review was pulled after Richard Warman complained of defamatory material that appeared in the review. 

In the end, no one is defamed, no one is sued, and all are happy.

Right?

Well.... not so much.

Ezra Is Getting Good At Begging For Forgiveness

So Connie Fournier wrote a book about how much she, her husband, and many of the denizens of Free Dominion feel betrayed by Stephen Harper and the Conservative Party. While we haven't bothered to read it, a friend did let us know we were mentioned in it, though not by name because we have cooties:

The biggest offenders in this attempted character assassination were anonymous bloggers with ties to violent anti-racist groups. Their obsession with writing about us and posting personal information about Free Dominion members spooked us to the point where we moved our household to a different location and kept our new address a secret.

The book is getting rave reviews though. But in the rather incestuous world of the fringe conservative echo chamber, the people giving the five star reviews appear to be mostly members of Free Dominion, fringe conservative bloggers, or both.

Like Jay Currie who seems to have a writing gig with Ezra Levant's "The Rebel."

In Currie's most recent (and evidently only thus far) of four articles (all of which have been removed at some time), it appears that he discusses  Ms. Fournier's book. And he makes some pointed, and potentially defamatory, comments about one Richard Warman.

Or at least we're guessing this is the case, since Levant pulled the article from the website:

Just so our readers can get a clear view of the reason for the article being removed:

Checking Mr. Warman's website confirmed our suspicions:

Rebel News Network/Ezra Levant – I have received an apology and retraction from Rebel News Network for defamatory material on their website. The question is if this constitutes some kind of world record for the shortest time ever for a media outlet (or youtube channel if you prefer) to go from inception to receiving a libel notice resulting in apology and retraction?

A further look at Mr. Warman's website included this little nugget too:

Richard Warman v Connie Fournier and Mark Fournier – December 2nd, 2015 is the date that has been set by the Ontario Court of Appeal for the meritless appeal by the Fourniers in my successful libel action against them. Of interest is the fact that they’re not appealing the $31,000 in damages awarded against them by the jury of their peers they demanded. The Fourniers are only appealing the permanent injunction to stop defaming me and the $62,000+ in costs against them personally.

The Fourniers, wisely, seemed not to have repeated the defamatory statements that are suggested in the extirpated Currie article, which is probably for the best considering they are already in pretty deep on the above successful libel action and a second upcoming concerning the Anne Cools smear. Interestingly Levant and other fringe conservative bloggers have apologized for that too.

Yeah. Don't @#$% with Richard Warman.

Bits and Bites: August 2015 Not Belated Edition

It's sometimes a tough call on whether or not we should discuss certain individuals on the blog. There are those like "the Goudreau" who seem to court any sort of attention, positive (rarely) or negative (much more frequent) as if the attention validates their importance. Usually the significance that individual places upon himself is in inverse proportion to the actual significance the individual actually has.

Such is the case of Ron Banerjee who, as the head (and likely only member) of Canadian Hindu Advocacy, has been able to fool a number of conservative media types into treating him with a degree of deference that would not necessarily be afforded to him if they realized how insignificant he really is.... to say nothing of the really disgusting things he writes and says about Muslims, Sikhs, LGBTQ, women, and a host of other groups an individuals.

Case in point, last week Banerjee and other members of Rise Canada, the newest hate group that Banerjee has created, protested outside the building where Olivia Chow accepted the NDP nomination to run in Spadina—Fort York.

But to refer to "members" of Rise Canada is perhaps a bit generous of us:

Yep. Two. That's all he was able to muster.

Banerjee later posted a video of himself (or at least the dulcet sounds of his slightly slurred voice) and the other dude harassing the folks entering the building. We won't play the entire video, but this part is somewhat interesting:

August 2015 Bits and Bites: Horribly Belated Edition

I know, I know.

This writer just got out of the bush a few days ago after several weeks of camping. Unfortunately, I forgot to let our friend who fills in when I'm (a) on vacation, (b) sick, (c) burnt out, or (d) hung over. But as he was gone as well as it turns out, it wouldn't have mattered anyways.

Soooo, what's happened since our last update?

First, we are working on gathering details for an upcoming article. Won't tip our hand too much yet, but I will mention that it involves a person based in Toronto we've discussed with some frequency in the past and some rather interesting associations that individual turns out to have. Stay tuned.

Second, we have two good news stories and one not-so-good story we would like to share, though even the latter doesn't put it's subject in a particularly positive light.

We start with the good news.

At the beginning of July, the New Brunswick Court of Appeals reserved judgement in the case of Robert McCorkill, who's will leaving his estate to the American-based hate group the National Alliance was challenged by his estranged sister, the Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs, and the government of New Brunswick. Paulie suggested that, "experienced court observers predicted a six month wait for the decision."

In the end, it didn't even take a single month:

Don't @#$% With Richard Warman: Part VII (UPDATED)

At least we think we're on to Part VII. Really, after a few years one does lose track.

In any case, a few years back a number of bloggers and others accused Richard Warman of posting incredibly racist comments about Caribbean-Canadian senator Anne Cools. It seems the accusation may have originated as a result of Warman's Se. 13 case against Marc Lemire. It was suggested that Warman had posted the statements on Lemire's Freedom-Site based on what was then alleged to have been an ip address Lemire and Klatt had linked to Warman. Warman denied this and there was absolutely no evidence to support the claim, but conservative Internet personalities like Kathy Shaidle and her husband Arnie, Kate McMillan of "Small Dead Animals", the good folks at Free Dominion, Ezra Levant, and a few others ran with the claim.

Mr. Warman insisted that they remove the defamatory claims from their respective websites. They doubled down. He sued.

At first they were all pretty confident that they would be able to prove that Warman had written the incredibly vile comments in question. They were especially smug when Levant was able to convince the courts to have Warman's hard drive subjected to a forensic examination:

Long story short, the forensic examination found absolutely nothing that would link Warman to the racist comments made about Ms. Cools. The other "evidence" also turned out to be a heaping load of nothing as "Bouquets of Gray" pointed out:

1. the IP address used by the author of the Cools post (which had later been used by Warman) was a load-balancing proxy usable by any of Rogers' close to a million customers;
2. the browser and setup used by author of the Cools Post was different from Warman's in several key ways (here and here);
3. the 'expert' opinion presented by Bernard Klatt arguing that Warman was the author of the Cools post was deeply substandard in several ways (here)

Ya, that's got to sting.

The first shoe to drop was Arnie of "BlazingCatFur" back in January 2013. Today, Kate "Small Dead Animals" McMillan and Kathy "Five Feet of Fury"Shaidle joined Arnie in apologizing to Warman for the unfounded and defamatory allegations made against him:

Hi Folks. Miss Me?

I know a few people did. Hell, even Jeff Goodall sent his warm regards.

Long story short, extended hospital stays suck. The food is flavorless. The beds are too narrow. The boredom is mind-numbing.

On the other hand, the drug cocktail in the IV drip had it's moments. There were moments where I felt at one with the universe, like the time I thought I was in a deep, meaningful, conversation with a ground squirrel spirit guide, though it turns out I was just yelling at a vase filled with daisies and daffodils. The nurses reduced the amount of morphine soon after.

It does look like one of the other Collective members tried to hold down the fort while this writer was on her unexpected sabbatical, at least for a time. However more important things like life often get in the way and no one can be faulted for that.

We will however try to get back to more regular updating. It's not as if things haven't been happening. The folks on Stormfront are becoming increasingly frisky. Your Ward News, an misanthropic little rag at best of times, has gone full fascist right down the the armbands (Kinsella and BCL have been covering that file here, here, and here). Some Southern Ontario Skinhead members and former members have been acting stupid.... again.

But first, a thank you is in order.

Winnicki Donates to Free Dominion's Warman Appeal: Part III

Well, talk about trying to have your cake and eat it too.

The past two articles posted too the blog have looked at the efforts of the owners of Free Dominion to crowd source their efforts in appealing the Warman judgement. More specifically, our focus was on one particular benefactor:

In our first article we wondered if the fine folks at Free Dominion were aware of who Tomasz Winnicki was and, if made aware, if they would keep the money of a virulent and unapologetic racist and anti-Semite. The second article which dealt with Winnicki's response appeared to have answered these questions, at least in part:

Now there was a possibility that, despite our helpful hint sent through twitter, that the Fourniers were still not aware of who Winnicki was after thanking him for his generous donation (if one were to believe it was Connie who had sent him thanks). It seems though now that they are aware of who Winnicki is and have made a change on the GoFundMe page.

Oh, they haven't returned the money if that, dear reader, is what you're thinking. They've just decided to hide this rather embarrassing fact. Here again is how Tommie's donation appeared on the page before....

.... and here is how it appeared earlier today:

Winnicki Donates to Free Dominion's Warman Appeal: Part II

There are a few things in life that are predictable.

Death. Taxes. And Tomasz Winnicki will respond to a blog post in which he is explicitly referred to.

A few days ago we had noted that Winnicki had made a donation to the Fourniers' legal fund established to appeal the defamation suit they had lost. As a result of having been found to have defamed Richard Warman, the Fourniers/Free Dominion and two other posters were assessed a considerable penalty. We mentioned that the Fourniers had yet to repudiate the donation at that time, though we suggested we would give them the benefit of the doubt. Perhaps they hadn't heard of Tom Winnicki (though he did post on their forum occasionally if memory serves; he may or may not have been banned) or perhaps they had not yet noticed his contribution. Certainly they wouldn't take money from someone like Tomasz Winnicki if they knew better, would they?

Though we did send a link to the article to the Fourniers via twitter, we didn't expect to hear from them regarding the matter. We were sure that we would eventually hear from Tommy.

And we did hear from him.

The first one in response to a comment Winnicki made regarding his belief that it should be perfectly fine for underage children to engage in sexting and for any accompanying harassment that might follow isn't exactly germane to his contributions to the Free Dominion legal fund, but it does say a great deal about a man who still lives at home with his elderly mother and who will be turning 40 in November. But he soon does get to the main point:

Winnicki Donates to Free Dominion's Warman Appeal

Looks like London's biggest hater (his own words, by the way) has warm and fuzzy feelings for Free Dominion. Or more likely vitriolic and caustic feelings towards the people Free Dominion isn't fond of. With him it's more likely the former than the latter.

Not long ago, the folks at Free Dominion opened up for business again on a more limited basis, however they soon launched a fundraising effort to appeal the Warman defamation suit that went to horribly against them.

Now, to be fair, the content of Free Dominion hasn't been as bat-fucking-insane as it had been in the past (relatively speaking of course) perhaps due to certain former regulars no longer posting on the forum. <coughchoughedkennedycough>

And, much to our surprise, we at ARC even found ourselves agreeing with their position on Bill C-51.

We figured that maybe, at least in the short to mid term, they had learned the value of moderation.

And then one of our readers tipped us off to this:

Uhm, who donated $200 to Free Dominion's appeal?

Oh dear.

Seven Days Left in Dr. Dawg Fundraiser

On March 18 we learned that Richard Warman and others started an Indiegogo campaign to help John Baglow pay legal bills resulting from his libel suit against Free Dominion and one of the posters there. As John has been a good friend of ARC over the years, we decided to promote the campaign as well as make our own contribution.

As such, with seven days remaining in the campaign we want to remind our readers that they can still donate here:

Dr. Dawg's Legal Bill

To sweeten the deal a bit more, the organizers also organized an auction:

The legal-bill Dawgtion ain’t over, but here are the lots that have been put up so far, with their URLs. Bidding will close for all items on April 15.

• Rare first edition of John Baglow’s first book of poetry, “Emergency Measures” (1976).
• Official global warming/pirates weak tea mug.
• Autographed edition of Margaret Atwood’s chilling Oryx and Crake.
• Signed young adult fantasy trilogy by well-known man-about-cybertown James Bow.
• A commissioned poem, your choice of topic or theme, by John Baglow, who promises “more than dawggerel.”
• For philatelists, an official First Day Cover of a stamp honouring the hundredth anniversary of Frontier College.

And “lots” more still to come!

Now our post promoting the campaign attracted one of the lead writers most persistent suitors (I'm sorry, Tommy, despite your continued efforts to charm me, you're just not my type) who decided to briefly make himself an issue for Dr. Dawg, though John wisely banned him from posting further comments. But Tom did post the following missive on VNN that caught our attention:

Why the ladies aren't knocking down Tommy's door remains a mystery.

But we wonder Tom. You had to pay.... what? Was it $100,000 in legal expenses? At least that's the amount was claimed by your supporters. That's a lot of money. We bet that it would have been really helpful had someone liked you enough to assist in paying off that debt.

Did anyone help you? Anyone? Did Paul Fromm help you? He certainly attempted to raise funds for CAFE using your particular case. How much of that money did you see yourself?

We just figure that Tom is a little jealous of Mr. Baglow and is lashing out like a child would. People like John enough to set up a campaign and raise money on hid behalf. We're not even sure the same would ever be the case for Tom as even his fellow London haters really don't care for him.

It's sort of sad.

With this in mind, we urge our readers once again to contribute to the campaign to help Dr. Dawg pay his legal expenses.

Do it, because Tom Winnicki would really, really, hate it if you did. 

March 2015 Bits and Bites: Warman, Dr. Dawg, Zundel, and Daniel Gallant

We've learned that Richard Warman has won another one. David Icke has paid Warman $90,000 to settle a rather long running libel action:

DAVID ICKE SETTLES LIBEL ACTION
5 March 2015

British conspiracy writer David Icke and co-defendants have paid Canadian human rights lawyer Richard Warman $210,000 CDN (117,000 GBP) in damages and legal costs to settle a libel action against them.

In 1999-2000, Warman had worked with various Jewish and anti-racism groups to notify public venues in Canada of discriminatory elements within Icke’s mishmash of conspiracy theories. After being provided with material from Icke’s own writings, a number of these venues withdrew permission for Icke to use their facilities in his tours.

In retaliation, Icke included false allegations in his 2001 book Children of the Matrix that Warman was seeking to suppress Icke’s purported exposure of Satanic child abuse and murder.

David Icke made an out-of-court settlement on January 8th paying $90,000 CDN (50,000 GBP) on the eve of a long-delayed trial that was scheduled to begin in Toronto on February 2nd, 2015. The Court order formally discontinuing the claim was issued on 4 March 2015 thus paving the way for this announcement. Insurers for three Canadian bookstores that had refused to stop selling the book after being served with libel notices had previously settled out for $120,000 CDN (67,000 GBP). Information obtained from litigation by Icke against his former US business partner demonstrated that at least 55,000 copies of Children of the Matrix had been sold worldwide.

The settlement includes the requirement that Icke immediately cease any further distribution of Children of the Matrix and remove the defamatory material from any future editions. Warman thanked his lawyers Christine Lonsdale and Elder Marques of law firm McCarthy Tétrault – “They were absolute professionals and I couldn’t have done it without them.”...

Sec. 13 Dead.... For Now

NOTE: This is a little screen shot heavy. Be forewarned.

On June 26, Sec. 13 of the Human Rights Act cease to exist. As our friend BCL noted however there is no reason why Sec. 13, which was ruled constitutional by the Supreme Court, can not be brought back by a more enlightened government in the future. In the meantime the good folks at the now moribund Free Dominion have decided to post (a now rare) comment to celebrate the demise of Sec. 13:

It it isn't surprising that Connie would give props to Marc Lemire as Free Dominion had been on the forefront of the effort to rehabilitate Lemire's reputation, characterizing him as a free speech martyr. In fact, they went beyond this and engaged in a little bit of historical revisionism. Not only did they deny his role in the leadership of the Heritage Front from 2001 to 2005, they have all but denied that he had any significant history with the hate group. We have attempted to show them the error of their ways, but it seems they have decided to believe him rather than us. But then they aren't the only ones who have tried to help Lemire cover up a very shady past. Ezra Levant, in two interviews with Lemire, asked about the Heritage Front and did not challenge this response:

Uh, the Heritage Front uh, was active back in, uh, the the 90s and I was a young kid at the time. I had some, uh, interest in some of the things that they were doing in particularly thing like uh opposition to employment equity, things like reducing immigration. So I uh, listened to some of what they were about, and uh, I went away from it. I mean I was involved with them peripherally in my teenage years.

Well, that is partially true, as these articles indicate he was active with the Heritage Front in his teen years (he would have been 18 at the time of the 1993 photo and 19 when they were published):