Free Dominion Shut Down by Lawfare

Gun Watch ^ | 24 February, 2014 | Dean Weingarten

[marktwain]

Free Dominion, one of the arch-foes of the Canadian Gun Registry, has been shut down.

The conservative website, Free Dominion, has shut down after a long legal battle with censorship champion lawyer Richard Warman.  Warman gained notoriety for his attacks on conservative sites by using the "hate speech" law in Canada (the Canadian Human Rights Commission) to censor speech he disagreed with.   He was essentially the only person using the law and the process.  The CHRC became his personal tool of repression.  He had considerable success, though the CHRC has since been reformed by parliament as a result.

Free Dominion has had a warm spot in my heart for  12 years.   They were one of the first sites to post my essay, Gun Registration is Gun Confiscation, and it lead to a spirited discussion on the site that I referenced more than once.  When I wanted to find the essay on the Internet, a search always turned up Free Dominion.  Not any more. 

According to Mark Steyn, who was attacked by Warman, Warman's  modus operendi was to create multiple Internet personalities, and use those to promote personal "hate speech" on websites.   He then referenced the posts in his lawsuits, and obtained quite a fortune from the process.   Now that the CHRC has been reformed, Warman has resorted to another part of Canadian law. 

Warman is now using the law on defamation, to shut down Free Dominion.  The Canadian law is so antithical to free speech that it becomes impossible to meet the standards of the court and operate a web forum at the same time.  From Free Dominion:

Today, Ontario Superior Court Justice Robert Smith issued an order in the Richard Warman vs Mark and Connie Fournier and John Does defamation case heard September, 2013. In addition to ordering that we must pay Warman $127,000, Justice Smith issued an injunction against us ordering we that never publish, or allow to be published, anything negative about Richard Warman. This means we are barred for life from ever operating a public forum or a blog (even about cookie recipes) where the public can comment. If we do so, any one of Warman’s handful of supporters could, and probably would, use a common proxy server to avoid being traced, plant a negative comment about Warman on our site, and we would both be charged with contempt of court. If that happened --unlike in the Ottawa courtroom where we were blocked at every turn from presenting a defense-- we actually would have no defense. We would both go to jail. This life sentence was imposed for our terrible crimes of voicing our honestly held beliefs and allowing others to do the same. Defamation law, in its current state, is entirely inadequate and counterproductive when applied to the internet. Now it is being used as a tool of censorship. Effectively!

While this is more of a free speech issue than a second amendment one, the two are closely intertwined.   The Canadian press is itself cowed by the ruling.   Only one article has appeared about it in Canada, and the comments section was turned off.   But then, perhaps the old print media likes the idea of Internet political forums being shut down.   The ruling makes it impossible to allow a free interchange of ideas on the Internet, without fear of a successful lawsuit, in Canada.

Canadian law does not have an exception for public figures, as does American law.  Truth is only a defense if you can absolutely prove that what you write is true.  There is no room for opinion.  The lawtimesnews.com has a pretty good overview of the case.   The article sums up Warman's claims here:

Freedominion.ca has been critical of Warman’s efforts and published dozens of comments that called him, among other things, a “censorship champion.”

 So, in Canada defamation law, saying that someone is a censorship champion can result in their ability to effectively censor you.

©2014 by Dean Weingarten: Permission to share is granted when this notice is included.
Link to Gun Watch

[marktwain]

This is how censorship works. Those that use it always find a legal way to justify their actions.

[Vaquero]

To arms!!!!! Great White North Patriots!!!!

[GenXteacher]

Typical of a socialist country.

[vetvetdoug]

I benefited from Canada's excessive and oppressive gun control law. I collect Civil War Era weapons and even they were to be registered and kept under lock and key under the Canadian Gun Control Law. Several collectors in Canada, rather than have them registered and put away, put them up for sale and I got a Confederate issued Hall Rifle issued to Confederate Troops in Corinth, Mississippi, in 1862. It had the marks and provenance to prove it and I got it rather reasonably (cheap is not the word). A Hall's Rifle was a breech loader that was first introduced around 1819 with a flintlock and later modified for caps around 1833. They were not a great weapon but many were made and used across the US.

[Lonesome in Massachussets]

It can’t happen h

[Hardastarboard]

Truth is only a defense if you can absolutely prove that what you write is true.

Barack 0bama's economic policies are killing America.

[null and void]

ping

[COBOL2Java]

"When's your meeting with this Robert Smith Justice dude?"

"I leave for Ottowa tonight"

"Well, OK, but when will you get to Canada?"

[Paine in the Neck]

Free Dominion is where I went when this site goes on the fritz. I say reopen under another name, post it here, and we'll publicize it for you. The Internet has a self-healing property when it comes to censorship; it routes around it.

[null and void]

At no point in history has any government ever wanted its people to be defenseless for any good reason ~ nully's son

Civil war is coming. Choose a mask:

Nut-job Conspiracy Theory Ping!

To get onto The Nut-job Conspiracy Theory Ping List you must threaten to report me to the Mods if I don't add you to the list...

[DJ MacWoW]

Canadian Liberals Have Shuttered A Forum Modeled On Free Republic
The Charge Is Libel
But Free Dominion Was Closed For Telling The Truth
Please Support Free Republic And Donate!

Click The Pic To Donate

Support FR, Donate Monthly If You Can

[null and void]

Warman's modus operendi was to create multiple Internet personalities, and use those to promote personal "hate speech" on websites. He then referenced the posts in his lawsuits, and obtained quite a fortune from the process.

Just in case anyone wonders why the Mod Squad sometimes seems a bit unreasonable...

[DJ MacWoW]

Btw, The couple that owns Free Dominion are FReepers but they dare not post on FR. They’ll be thrown in jail if they do.

[Nifster]

I really don’t like any of those masks. Can I make one up.... maybe something with a zombie theme?

[coloradan]

Warman's modus operendi was to create multiple Internet personalities, and use those to promote personal "hate speech" on websites. He then referenced the posts in his lawsuits, and obtained quite a fortune from the process.

If that can be proved, I'd say there's a basis for both a hefty lawsuit and also for criminal charges.

[null and void]

The last one is supposed to be zombie themed. It’s still a free country for making masks. Still. For now.

[Fred Hayek]

What Richard Warman does is the equivalent of a person vandalizing his or her own car and filing a police report that a hate crime has been committed.

[null and void]

Btw, The couple that owns Free Dominion are FReepers but they dare not post on FR. They’ll be thrown in jail if they do.

Free speech is too dangerous for peasants to engage in...

[DJ MacWoW]

Yes. The peasants will button their lip or pay the price.

[spankalib]

LOL!