Human rights complaint case settled
Don Butler, The Ottawa Citizen
Published: Friday, June 13, 2008
Ottawa lawyer Richard Warman has settled his federal human rights complaint about Internet hate posted by a Coquitlam, B.C., man.
As part of the mediated settlement, Ciaran Paul Donnelly has agreed to permanently close his account on Stormfront, the U.S. website through which the hate messages were distributed, and will ask to have his earlier postings deleted.
Mr. Donnelly has also agreed to pay $1,000 in damages for making veiled threats against Mr. Warman and posting a picture of a sign reading: "The Church of Dead Warman."
Ottawa lawyer Richard Warman believes his seven-year battle to shutdown the worst Canadian online hate-mongers has been successful. Yesterday, neo-Nazi activist Ciaran Paul Donnelly agreed to permanently close his website account and also agreed to pay $1,000 in damages for making veiled threats against Mr. Warman.View Larger
Ottawa lawyer Richard Warman believes his seven-year battle to shutdown the worst Canadian online hate-mongers has been successful. Yesterday, neo-Nazi activist Ciaran Paul Donnelly agreed to permanently close his website account and also agreed to pay $1,000 in damages for making veiled threats against Mr. Warman.
Terms of the settlement, which prohibit Mr. Donnelly from posting further hate propaganda on the Internet or engaging in additional retaliation against Mr. Warman, will be registered with the Federal Court.
In an interview, Mr. Warman said he believes his seven-year battle to shutdown the worst Canadian online hate-mongers has been successful.
"The agenda was always to get the message out and to sideline a generation of leadership of the neo-Nazi movement," he said. "I think the case law so far has developed that I've accomplished what I originally set out to do."
Mr. Donnelly, who posted his messages under the username "Der Totenkopf," is a well-known figure in the Canadian neo-Nazi movement.
He was a leading member of Western Canada For Us, a now-defunct Alberta-based neo-Nazi group that included Glen Bahr and Peter Kouba, against whom Mr. Warman has filed successful human rights complaints for Internet hate.
Another member was Mr. Donnelly's sometimes girlfriend, Jessica Beaumont of Calgary, known as "Jessy Destruction" on Stormfront.
She was the subject of another successful complaint by Mr. Warman, who has had 10 complaints about Internet hatred upheld by the Canadian Human Rights Tribunal in recent years.
Three of Mr. Warman's other complaints, including the one against Mr. Donnelly, ended in mediated settlements.
Mr. Warman will donate most of the settlement money to a memorial education fund for the children of Kelly Morrisseau, an Aboriginal woman whose 2006 murder in Gatineau Park, north of Ottawa, remains unsolved.
The rest will go to the Canadian Anti-racism and Education Society (CAERS), an anti-racism organization that tracks and monitors hate crime.
Mr. Warman has just one complaint still to be heard by the human rights tribunal.
It's against a London, Ont., group called the Northern Alliance and its leader, Jason Ouwendyk.
It's expected to be heard in August.
But he wouldn't rule out more complaints in the future.
"I won't ride off into the sunset just yet."
|
