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
No matter what you think of David Icke, I think you will be shocked to see what Warman was doing on that video, and you'll see why the jury wasn't allowed to see it because, in the judge's words, it was "too prejudicial".
Significant sections are at 30:18 - 32:08 and 38:51 - 40:34.
Spoiler: If you watch to the end, the attempted assault actually did take place.
Disappointing news. Although I have always considered myself neither a liberal nor a conservative, I have always found the latter to be far more accepting of a diverse range of opinions. I will be donating to the fund.
This is outrageous - and sobering.
We have just received some very good news in another case Richard Warman has been running against us that is currently in the Federal Court of Appeals.
More to come....
And, here is the good news:
The Federal Court of Appeal case where Richard Warman and the National Post were appealing the case they lost to us (without a lawyer)was scheduled for this coming Wednesday morning.
Today both the National Post and Richard Warman suddenly filed notices of discontinuance.
WE WON!
Well, that’s good news. At least not all the news for FD is bad.
If we could only find you a benefactor to get FD back up & running...
bump
That could very well be partly what is behind it. They suspect that CSIS, Canada’s version of the CIA, was working behind the scenes investigating Free Dominion for promoting hate. Our very own intelligence agency isn’t busy enough with real terrorists that it had FD in its sights. The human rights industry is very powerful and beloved by the left and still fighting for relevance. Lately they have weighed in on the rights of transgendered to use any washroom they choose, and have said requiring a Czech immigrant to pass Canadian engineering standards a form of discrimination.
Condolences. This is the same kangaroo court that tried stifling Mark Steyn some time ago.
Self ping
I wonder what the “defamatory” comments were.
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