Sep 10
7
Connie Fournier on SLAPP, lawfair and her war for free speech
Click here for an upcoming International Free Press Society event announcement for Sept. 16 with Free Dominion’s Mark and Connie Fournier in London, Ontario.
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Connie Fournier’s story of the ongoing battle for free speech that she and others are fighting is a reminder of the importance of Christian governance. Christian governance is about the rule of law, equality before the law and ordered liberty. This is the antidote to today’s socialist Establishment with its preference for censorship, moral anarchy, political centralization and the messianic state. Key to the advancement of Christian governance is the abolition of Canada’s human rights commissions. This is one of the goals of Christian governance.
I note that the Fourniers will also be interviewed on Just Right radio by Robert Metz when in London. I had lost track of Robert Metz for the past 20 years. But 20 years ago, when he was leader of Ontario’s Freedom Party, I reported on his battles with Ontario’s human rights commission and tribunal. At that time, my brother and I, Robert Metz and REAL Women V-P Gwen Landolt were already calling for the abolition of Ontario’s human rights industry. We may have been the first ones and the only ones at the time in Ontario doing so. And we haven’t changed our positions since, because we understood from the outset how evil, anti-Christian and un-Canadian they were in terms of their initial socialist mandate. It wasn’t simply their more recent assault on religious liberty and free speech that generated our concerns. – Tim Bloedow
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August 26, 2010
Listen to the Sounds of the Silenced
In early 2008, the Forest City Institute brought Connie and Mark Fournier, operators of Free Dominion, and Michael Coren, to London to discuss freedom of speech and the Canadian Human Rights Commissions. Since that time we’ve seen the outcome of the attempted prosecution of MacLean’s magazine (failed), the release of Ezra Levant’s best-selling novel Shakedown, highly critical of Canada’s Human Rights Commissions (success), and many stories related to the human rights commissions and hate speech. Almost all of these stories show the public favours freedom of speech and that most people understand that tensions exist and sometimes, a principled stand must be taken. When clearly informed of the facts, almost every Canadian falls on the side of common sense and ultimately believes in freedom over bullying.
One could be forgiven for thinking, given the bad press these would-be censors have been receiving, that they and their accomplices would be chastened. Instead, they are finding new ways to continue their attacks through the use of SLAPP suits, nuisance suits and various forms of Lawfare. We’ve even seen one of Canada’s most prolific human rights complainants (who is also a serial civil lawsuit filer) force the National Post to grant him copyright control of a negative article about his actions. Opening a new censorship front in Canada, this serial litigant is now using copyright control to bully websites all over the country into removing critical words about his political and legal activities.
It is clear that the enemies of free speech will continue to use any means at their disposal to pursue their anti-liberty agenda regardless of the damage they are doing to our society and contrariness of their actions to our fundamental notions of liberty. The lengths they will go to are alarming when known. For most of us this is the stuff of bad novels about third world dictatorships that, if we are fortunate, has not touched us personally. But, what does it feel like to be embroiled in one of these situations on an ongoing basis?
It has been 3 years since Connie and Mark received their first notice of a drive-by hate speech complaint against Free Dominion. That complaint was eventually dropped but shortly thereafter, Connie and Mark were sued for libel by Richard Warman in a suit that also named Ezra Levant, Kathy Shaidle, Kate MacMillan, Jonathan Kay and the National Post. In keeping with his shotgun-blast tactics, Richard Warman has additionally sued the Fourniers in two very similar complaints. Overwhelming his targets with legal expenses is an integral part of Richard Warman’s “Maximum Disruption” strategy.
Connie and Mark have won at least one major battle in the war on a matter which would have had serious implications for all Canadians had the complainant been victorious (see press release below for details) but the fight isn’t over yet.
Connie and Mark continue to press ahead but standing up for what is right in this climate is an incredibly costly exercise and Connie and Mark need and deserve all the support they can get from freedom loving Canadians.
We need to recognize that if they are forced to give up their fight due to lack of financial resources, and are defeated, we all lose. We will all become sanctioned targets for litigating predators.
Press Release:
April 2010
The Divisional Court decision that was released this afternoon changed the rules of disclosure in civil litigation so that plaintiffs must now prove a prima facie case against John Does before site administrators are required to turn over personal information about them. The ruling states, in part:
In addition, because this proceeding engages a freedom of expression interest, as well as a privacy interest, a more robust standard is required to address the chilling effect on freedom of expression that will result from disclosure….
…In the circumstances of a website promoting political discussion, the possibility of a defence of fair comment reinforces the need to establish the elements of defamation on a prima facie basis in order to have due consideration to the interest in freedom of expression.
The text of the decision can be read here.
This case is a huge step forward toward changing the law to accommodate new technology.