I missed this. Free Dominion, a conservative internet forum was served with a complaint of libel by well known Human Rights lawyer Richard Warman earlier this month.

Warman is best known for taking on Stormfront a neo-nazi group.(he filed against the Canadian poster on the Neo-Nazi site) He has been awarded the Saul Hayes Human Rights Award for his work in human rights. He has won nine Human Rights complaints he has brought against white nationalist individuals and groups.

Edmonton Sun
Ottawa Citizen
Southern Poverty Law Center: Hate on the Net

A complaint filed against Free Dominion (poster Bill Whatcott) by Marie-Line Gentes two months ago was dropped.

Not quite the media attention they hoped for Response to BDBO by Tristen Emmanual of Equipping Christians for the Public Square

via BigCityLib who has background on the filing.

I should say that I think most of the stuff that Free-D posters have accused him of is pretty mild, but I am not an expert in libel law. It is also unclear to me that Mr. Warman understands that the “you” he is referring to above includes not just Connie and Mark, but their hundreds(?) of regular posters (although I suppose one could argue that they indeed “published” the comments by hosting the forum).

In any case, as his wiki entry indicates, Mr. Warman seems far more bloody-minded about this sort of thing than Ms. Gentes, so his case is much more likely to be seen through to its conclusion.

Also, I don’t think Connie (Free Dominion owner) has done herself much good in enlisting Neo-Nazi Marc Lemire to help “research” the comments that sparked the complaint.

BigCityLib has a point. Free Dominion will become a gathering place for white nationalists, because Warman is in the forefront in Canada successfully challenging hate speech online.
Warman and at least one judge in a 2006 case received security after death threats.

For an example see this post at montreal simon - one of his comments (which was removed) at Free Dominion received homophobic and anti semitic responses.


One Response to “Free Dominion and Richard Warman - libel suit”

  1. 1 John 

    “Warman and at least one judge in a 2006 case received security after death threats.”

    The alleged comments came from an American who has never been to Canada. The FBI investigated these allegeded “threats” and concluded they were not death threats at all, but merely opinions. E.G “Wouldn’t it be great if our math teacher got hit by a bus” is not a death threat.

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