Posted on 01/29/2014 7:14:41 AM PST by conniew
By Andrew Duffy, OTTAWA CITIZEN January 28, 2014
OTTAWA — The online political forum, Free Dominion, has shut down after a wholesale defeat in a libel case brought by Ottawa human rights lawyer Richard Warman.
A jury concluded that Warman was maliciously defamed by four commentators on Free Dominion, a website that bills itself as “the voice of principled conservatism.”
Warman has been awarded more than $127,000 in general damages, aggravated damages, punitive damages and court costs because of 41 defamatory statements published on the conservative website in 2007.
Warman rose to prominence during the past decade by using the Canadian Human Rights Act to shut down the websites of people spreading hate speech; it made him the target of free speech advocates in the conservative blogosphere, and on websites such as Free Dominion.
In a recently released decision, Ontario Superior Court Justice Robert Smith granted Warman a permanent injunction that prohibits Free Dominion from ever repeating “in any manner whatsoever” any of the 41 defamations.
The website’s operators, Connie and Mark Fournier, of Kingston, this week shut down freedominion.ca, saying they could not control what comments other people posted.
“By leaving the forum open and allowing people to comment, we’d be opening ourselves to a contempt-of-court charge,” Connie Fournier said Tuesday.
“If someone repeated one of those comments, we would be in trouble — and could even go to jail.”
The Fourniers have operated the website as a “labour of love” for the past 13 years.
“It’s really sad to be at the point where we have to shut down the political forum,” she said. “But we’ve come to the point where it would be crazy for us to keep it open: it would be too much of a risk.”
They have vowed to appeal the defamation case and have launched a campaign on Indiegogo.com to raise money for their legal costs. The campaign has so far raised $2,800 of its $25,000 goal.
The Warman case is among the first to address at trial what constitutes defamation in the caustic political blogosphere. It adds to case law that suggests the Internet does not shield anonymous posters from legal action if they wrongfully attack someone’s reputation.
On his website, Warman said the case offers lessons for anyone involved in an Internet blog or forum. Chief among them, he said, is the idea that “If you make a mistake, admit it, repair the harm, and move on.”
Connie Fournier, however, said that if the case stands on appeal it will impair the once vibrant Canadian blogosphere.
“I think this is a terrible thing for free speech on the Internet,” she said. “When people who are allowing comments on their blogs and forums look at humongous costs and damage rulings like this, at injunctions that could put them in jail, they’re not going to want to take the risk of opening their site.”
The jury found that the four defendants — Roger Smith, Jason Bertucci, Connie and Mark Fournier — had been “malicious, high-handed and oppressive” in their conduct. Justice Smith also found the defendants had acted unreasonably by refusing to accept Warman’s offer to settle the case for $5,000 each.
Warman had to fight in court to obtain the identifies of those anonymous posters who had left defamatory comments on Free Dominion. The case dragged on for six years, culminating in a three-week trial before a six-person jury.
The Fourniers have never apologized or issued a retraction about the statements found to be defamatory.
© Copyright (c) The Ottawa Citizen
They can be posted anywhere except on a website or blog that Connie or I operate and they can be posted by anyone except us.
Since we no longer have a website and everyone else is terrified, it makes it very difficult for us to get our side of the story out there.
Connie, I posted this to RochesterConservative.com, to your friends "south of the border" in Western NYS. I will do my best to spread the word on this violation of your natural rights!
About four years ago one of Warman’s associates decided to get into the lawfare game too. This guy is a far left blogger in Canada.
When this case began there was a big controversy in progress about a Canadian Taliban terrorist. The leftist blogger supported the case of the terrorist. One day a member of Free Dominion got in an argument, on the leftist’s blog, about the issue. They argued for a while there and then continued the debate onto another blog. Eventually the Free Dominioner brought the fight to Free Dominion.
An important thing to understand here is that this debate happened between two people using only their internet screen names.
In his long post that brought the fight to Free Dominion, our member referred to the leftist blogger as “one of Canada’s most vocal supporters of the Taliban.” The blogger then got on the thread at FD using a second screen name, and pretending to be a woman, and outed himself on the thread. He later used this planted evidence connecting his screen name to his real name as evidence against us in a defamation suit he launched against Connie and me (and against the author of the words). The plaintiff lied repeatedly at first that he was the person behind the female screen name but eventually had to give up and admit it. He also bragged that he was considering not even naming the author of the words in his suit because it was really the Fourniers (us) who he “wanted to get”.
The upshot is that because one person using an internet alias insulted another person’s internet alias on our website, we have been fighting this lawsuit for four years now.
About two years ago we filed a motion of dismissal in Ontario Superior Court outlining the above facts and the judge there completely dismissed the case against us in a ruling that was lauded across the country. The plaintiff wouldn’t let it rest though, he filed an appeal. The appeal wasn’t that the judge had made the wrong ruling but that the ruling shouldn’t have been made in a motion for dismissal, the plaintiff should have had a full blown trial. The Ontario Court of Appeals ruled in his favor, but with an unusual twist. They said that they did not understand enough about the new issues surrounding this case so they ordered a full trial so both sides could bring in expert witnesses and interveners to inform the court before such an important ruling was made. They then ordered us to pay the plaintiff $14,000 because we lost the appeal.
We have our ducks in a row for that case and it will be heard in March, 2014.
WOW! Thanks, Entropy Squared. BTTT!!
Yes, I knew those were from the Communist goals, just wasn’t familiar with exactly what those documents were that you linked to. Thanks for explaining.
FASCISM...PURE FASCISM.
I used to post on FD and FR alot more than now. I been busy with real life issues. Just wanted to chime in and let you guys up north know we are with you all. Allies and conservatives till the end.
I bet the commies would love to do that to this site.
bttt
Oh come on - how do you get to that conclusion? There's no reasonable connection between those two events. The real problem Canada has is a surfeit of "freedom" with an insane all encompassing Human Rights act - and if you dont think that isn't coming to your country soon, I'm sorry but you're wrong.
Oh, and point of information: The Canadians DID have to fight for their independence. They had to fight the US for it.
Yes, I remember it well.
Sam Gamgee wrote: Appeal is available but very very difficult and very very expensive.
The problem is more than expense and delay. THe problem is how FD can behave pending appeal. Even if they manage to get a stay of the judgment pending appeal there is no guarantee that continued postings won't be found libelous if the judgment stands. And getting a stay without posting a substantial bond is an uphill struggle.
Trust me on that one; I got one of those in November 2012 and it was some of the hardest work as a lawyer I have ever done.
However, I don't believe the Americans ever entertained any idea of incorporating them into the United States, so the reality is that you fought off an invasion, not a War for Independence.
That being said, I'm afraid you are right about the phony Human Rights act. We will have to fight tooth and nail to prevent a similar encroachment here. In other ways, Canada is already more free than we are thanks to the supreme idiocy of our voters since 2006.
“The Fourniers would have to enter the US under the shadows and work joe jobs for the rest of their lives.”
They would then be eligible for the Obama/RINO Amnesty!
SWEET! LOL!
Thank you! :-)
We feel like we have to stay here and fight for the sake of our kids and grandkids. But, there may come a day....
Which should help us appreciate how difficult it can be for Jim and the mods to do the commendable job they do here.
Yes! They have been through their trials and tribulations, too, and this place is still going strong! They deserve a lot of credit!
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