Superior Court of Justice: Richard Warman must hand over his computer for inspection

It's been months since I've given a report about the nuisance SLAPP lawsuits that Canada's illiberal censors have unleashed against me. As longtime readers will know, I was targeted by Canada's Orwellian human rights industry back in 2006 when they falsely prosecuted me for publishing the Danish cartoons of Mohammed in a magazine, and I dared to fight back instead of go meekly.

Those bullies dropped the cartoon prosecution against me (after 15 government bureaucrats and lawyers dined out on me for 900 days), leaving me with $100,000 in legal bills. (Thank you for helping me pay that bill, dear reader.) But then the most aggressive members of the human rights industry proceeded to punish me by filing over 20 law society complaints and five defamation suits against me, which have been proceeding ever since.

Today's story in the National Post about one of those lawsuits seems like a good opportunity to give an update.

Warman must hand over his neo-Nazi records

The Post story is headlined "Lawyer who launched libel suit against Ezra Levant ordered to hand over computer", and that's a pretty accurate summary of what happened this week. In brief, an Ontario judge has ordered Richard Warman, a former Canadian Human Rights Commission (CHRC) staffer and Canada's most prolific censor, to hand over a copy of his laptop computer to an independent forensic expert, who will search it for evidence relevant to Warman's Nazi activities.

Warman's neo-Nazi activities already condemned by Canadian Human Rights Tribunal

Those activities are at the center of Warman's two nuisance lawsuits against me. Warman is a member of several neo-Nazi organizations, including Stormfront and Vanguard, and he posted hundreds of anti-Semitic, anti-black and anti-gay comments online, including my personal favourite, when he called Jews "scum". That last comment was particularly offensive to the Canadian Human Rights Tribunal, which issued a ruling last year calling Warman's racist conduct "disappointing and disturbing". No kidding.

Writing hundreds of bigoted messages is bizarre and un-Canadian to begin with. But even weirder is that Warman published much of this bigotry while he was working at the CHRC, and then later when Warman went on to work at the Department of National Defence's own internal human rights commission, called the Directorate of Special Grievances. Seriously, that's what it's called.

So here was someone claiming to be fighting against "hate speech" by day, but pumping out hundreds of hateful comments by night.

Creepy.

Warman has given a name to his belief in bullying: "maximum disruption"

Anyways, Warman sued me because I wrote about this creepiness. You can see his statement of claim here (he's actually sued me twice, in nearly-identical lawsuits), and my statement of defence here. Warman has sued or threatened to sue over sixty different people for defamation -- I'm not the only one he tries to bully with his philosophy he calls "maximum disruption". But I am, so far, the only person who has used the procedural rules of court to demand that Warman disclose his relevant records -- such as the electronic trail he left behind as he wrote his countless bigoted comments online.

In Canada's human rights kangaroo courts, defendants don't have the right to see any of the complainant's records -- it's a completely one-sided process. No wonder that's Warman's preferred forum. Not so in real courts, where the plaintiff must hand over any relevant documents, even if he's embarrassed by them.

Warman refused my requests, of course, so I sent my lawyers to court to ask a judge to order him to turn over the records. As you can see in this 38-page ruling (.pdf version here, html here), this week a judge agreed to many of my requests.

Warman's computer will be searched for all of his Nazi comments

The ruling orders Warman to give a mirror image of his laptop computer to an independent IT expert who will examine it for anything (including fragments, metadata, etc.) that relates to his neo-Nazi activities that are at the heart of his lawsuits against me.

We know Warman has many neo-Nazi membership accounts, and the IT expert will search for Warman's known Nazi aliases, such as Pogue Mahone, Axetogrind, Lucie, Mary Dufford, Dave McLean and others. The IT expert will also search for various terms relevant to the bigoted online comments about Sen. Anne Cools, including the alias 90sareover and the insulting words c-nt and n-gger. As well, Warman's IP address at the relevant times will also be inspected.

The key paragraphs in the judgment are 167 to 170. (Note, para. 167 has a transcription error; it should read that Warman must confirm in writing he has used no other computers to make neo-Nazi comments.)

Obviously, the case is still before the courts, so I will only describe this ruling, not comment on it. But other observers have given their two bits.

The court did not award me my legal costs

The judge has postponed any cost consequences of his decision until the trial itself is heard -- so neither Warman nor I have to pay the other's legal bills resulting from this hearing. But I have been instructed to put up the money to hire the independent IT expert.

Obviously, I don't yet know how much such an expert will cost. It really isn't possible to even estimate it, if there are hundreds (or even thousands) of relevant files in Warman's computer. If I had to guess, I would guess $20,000. That's on top of the legal bills incurred to get this order -- a process that has literally taken a year. I estimate that this laptop diversion will cost approximately $70,000 when all is said and done, an amount larger than the lawsuit itself. But I still believe, as I always have, that once the light of public scrutiny is shone on Warman's neo-Nazi conduct, not only will his lawsuit against me wither away, but so will his suits against dozens of others, as well as the credibility of the human rights industry itself, which has largely been built on Warman's Nazi entrapment.

Other lawsuits: Giacomo Vigna

Warman has two identical lawsuits against me, each for $50,000. And then there's the $50,000 lawsuit filed by Giacomo Vigna, a prosecutor who worked on several of Warman's complaints at the CHRC.

The trial of Vigna v. Levant was heard in Ottawa over the course of seven days in March and June. The ruling in that case has not yet been issued -- although my lawyer's bill for the trial has been. Like Warman's suit, the cost of defending the Vigna suit has been about as much as the suit itself, but my belief in freedom of speech and resisting censorship demanded no less.

Warren Kinsella

Warren Kinsella's absurd $5-million defamation lawsuit against me continues, too. It's not a serious lawsuit, of course; Kinsella never files serious lawsuits -- he issues countless threats to intimidate his opponents and make them spend money. Kinsella's reputation is not worth $5-million (no Canadian's is, according to our courts); and then there's the pesky matter of what I said having been true. (Nutshell: the Gomery Commission found Kinsella's role in Adscam to have been "highly inappropriate". Kinsella did not disagree enough with that assessment to appeal that judicial finding.) But that's the point of all these lawsuits: just to bury me in an avalanche of paperwork and bills, to get me to shut up. So far, it ain't working.

You can see Kinsella's suit here, and my defence here.

Khurrum Awan

Khurrum Awan is the little bigot who took Mark Steyn to the B.C. Human Rights Tribunal for writing a magazine article criticizing radical Islam. Awan actually boasted that his objective was to foist legal costs on his political enemies -- basically an admission that his lawsuit was legal junk. Awan is suing me, too. So that's five lawsuits altogether, on top of the law society complaints and human rights complaints.

What's the goal of these pests?

The purpose of SLAPP lawsuits is twofold: to overwhelm the political target with legal costs, and to demoralize him. I can assure you that I have not been demoralized -- if anything, the abusive conduct of these plaintiffs has confirmed for me the importance of fighting against the corrupt human rights industry in Canada.

The legal costs though, are high. They would have crushed me by now if it were not for my supportive readers, who share my belief that human rights commissions have become terrible bullies, destroying our Canadian value of freedom of speech and bringing the administration of justice into disrepute.

If it weren't for you, the lawfare being waged against me would surely have crushed me by now.

I'm afraid I need some help again

I regret having to ask for more help, but I must -- I don't think I've made a solicitation on my website since January, and since then I've had to pay for the entire Vigna trial and the expensive hearing into Warman's computer. I've taken an extra job to help cover the bills, and my lawyers have been very patient waiting for me to pay. Friends, I hate to ask, but I really do need your help again, especially if I'm going to hire that IT expert to look through Warman's computer. That's going to be a five-figure cost, and a lot of it will have to be paid in advance.

If you believe in fighting back against these bullies, please help me. You can use PayPal, by clicking on the button below. If you’d prefer to send in a cheque by snail mail, please do. Please make cheques payable to one of my lawyers who has set up a trust fund for donations:

“Christopher Ashby in Trust”

Attn: Ezra Levant defence fund

Suite 1013, 8 King Street East

Toronto, Ontario, M5C 1B5

Thank you very much. I promise to fight this battle all the way to its destined conclusion: a victory for freedom of speech for all of us, and a rebuke to censors and those bullies who practice "maximum disruption".