08.20.2010 12:35 PM

Warman wins again

Despite the bullshit pinging around in the far-right blogosweird, the fact is that my friend Richard Warman beat Ezra Levant in court this week.

Levant in fact lost his motion outright.  Warman obtained an order that Levant has to pay for an independent expert to review a few search terms on Richard’s computer.

All of Ezra’s 15 other production requests were denied and the court said he was on “a fishing expedition.” That’s a quote.  And Richard had already agreed to have an expert review the computer, because he has nothing to hide.

Some “win,” Ezra.

14 Comments

  1. Zachary Scott Smith says:

    The part that I like the best was that Mr. Warman hired an expert whose analysis concluded that he did not do anything, well it would appear that the Judge does not share in Mr. Warman confidence of his expert and has requested that an independent expert to do the same job as Mr. warman hired expert did.
    ..
    As to Mr. Warman winning well he has to do the following and the Judge did say ” this alleged fishing expedition”

    1) A judge has ordered anti-hate lawyer Richard Warman to turn over a laptop computer he used to create false personas on far-right websites, so that an independent expert can search it for evidence that Mr. Warman authored a racist comment against a Canadian senator.
    2) Master Donald E. Short of the Ontario Superior Court ordered that a “mirror image” of the computer’s hard drive be searched for any data about the names “Pogue Mahone,” “Axetogrind,” “Lucie,” “Mary Dufford” and “Dave McLean,” names Mr. Warman gave when registering with controversial websites to monitor online racism and prepare complaints of hate speech.
    3) The computer must also be searched for a list of words taken from the racist comment, posted on Freedomsite. org in 2003 by a person identified as 90sAREover.
    4) In ordering an independent expert to conduct a highly specific search, Master Short also denied several of Mr. Levant’s other requests, concerned that they amounted to a “fishing expedition.”
    5) “In my view to a large extent in this case the only relevant information to [Mr. Warman’s] libel claim on Mr. Warman’s hard drive would be files which establish whether he was the author of the Hateful Posting,”
    6) Master Short wrote. “Unless and until we know what the [independent expert] finds on the hard drive (if anything), this alleged fishing expedition may turn out to have been a wild goose chase.”

  2. bc says:

    Warren, I can understand your dislike for Mr. Levant…your battles with him are well known.

    However, I can’t for the life of me, understand how you can associate yourself, support, and call friend with a person like Mr. Warman. The man is on an ideological warpath, and has been for years…all at the expense of free speech.

    I’ve read your site now for a few years and find myself at a loss to see the connection between your politics, and those of Mr. Warman.

    Is it an ‘enemy of my enemy is my friend’ type of thing? What gives.

  3. Kalman says:

    I have had the opportunity to read Master Short’s decision. Mr. Kinsella is quite right this is not a win for Levant though it is only a partial win for Mr. Warman. That said, the way in which Levant rants on his blog making it appear that he won some incredible victory is nauseating. It is all spin from a defendant who is running scared knowing he is coming ever so much closer to embarrassment.

  4. Brian Busby says:

    “…Levant rants on his blog making it appear that he won some incredible victory…”

    Is it really so, really so strange? After all, this is a man who describes himself in court filings as one of this country’s ?premier advocates of free speech and free expression?.

  5. robert says:

    As the bird flying in ever diminishing circles, Ezra may have just found himself.

  6. jaded says:

    No clear winner or loser but the epilogue in the decision speaks volumes about how the judge views Ezra’s conduct.

    Hope the search proves Ezra was wrong so he can be hit with costs. But then again, as long as Ezra can count on donations coming in after he begs for funds, maybe he doesn’t care. -a.

  7. Abe says:

    Just read ezra’s take & true to form he’s begging for cash again & supposedly has even gotten another job to pay the bills. Funny – I didn’t know he earned anything on his own these days. I may send a cheque to his lawyers for his defence fund. Of course I hope they will charge Ezra legal fees for having to receipt the cheque made out for one penny. -a.

  8. Ryan says:

    As the old saying goes: Birds of a feather … .

  9. Iris Mclean says:

    Interesting how the privileged class now amuses itself by constantly suing each other over what each other says.
    I suppose it’s better than when they used to order their armies to slaughter their enemies.

    • Namesake says:

      In conflicts, Bloggers blog, Fighters fight, Lawyers litigate, and (sub-) Prime Ministers prorogue… what’s your point?

      (apart from a show of pseudo-Marxist affectation about how they just do it for ‘amusement’)

  10. Steve T says:

    Just because Ezra Levant is often a self-righteous blowhard doesn’t mean that Warman is on the side of the angels.

    This latest matter is a victory for Warman in a very narrow portion of the overall battle. If you asked the average Canadian, I think you’d find that they in principle still support what Levant is fighting for, and are opposed to the approach taken by Warman in his efforts to crush free speech.

    • Kalman says:

      Steve, I would be interested in seeing any proof of your assertion. My admittedly limited take (talking with friends, parties, and just yakking up a storm) tells me Canadians are quite balanced on this issue. They recognize the need for and right of free speech while wary of those who would stir-up hatred for hatred sake. Many understand the need for limits on unbridled hate. And almost all think Ezra is a buffoon.

      • Namesake says:

        re: “almost all think Ezra is a buffoon” — unfortunately, an un-goodly portion of Cndns don’t see that, and now that he’s got a large scale bully pulpit, he’s becoming quite an influential hateful buffoon.

        He and the other Stunners are on a full-court press today in a chain-wide series trumpeting a highly suspect, undisclosed, and no doubt egregiously misinterpreted “secret government survey” to complain, e.g., that

        “now that we know 71% of Tamil refugees travel back and forth to Sri Lanka, it’s more than a scandal. It’s wholesale fraud…. [There should be] an audit of every Tamil refugee to see if they, too, took vacations back to Sri Lanka, after swearing they were terrified to be there. Those who went back should be denaturalized — stripped of their immigration status and deported immediately.”
        By Ezra Levant, Tamils playing us for fools, QMI Agency
        http://www.torontosun.com/comment/columnists/2010/08/20/15091486.html

        – Refugees go home for holidays, By Brian Lilley,
        http://www.torontosun.com/news/canada/2010/08/21/15098766.html

        – We’ve been duped by the Tamils (unsigned editorial)
        http://www.torontosun.com/comment/editorial/2010/08/21/15098871.html

        – ‘Send the Tamils home’: poll, By BRYN WEESE,
        http://www.torontosun.com/news/canada/2010/08/21/15098776.html

        – UN says Sri Lanka situation improving:
        http://www.torontosun.com/news/canada/2010/08/21/15098771.html

        Among other things, I’d like to know:

        1) how these hate-mongers can justify their conclusion there was any fraud even among just those 22 of the 31 successful refugees interviewed (much less 71% of ALL the Tamils granted refugee status), since “being shot, disappeared, or arrested on sight by the gov’t” surely isn’t the only form of bona fide persecution (being stripped of property and denied decent jobs & acess to higher education, or being threatened by significant portions of the _populace_ because of one’s minority ethnic or religious status, both apply to sig. no’s of Tamils, but are consistent w. going back for a brief visit once under a Cndn. passport) — particularly if they haven’t even read the study; and

        2) how they learned of this “secret study”; they cite James Bissett, a former head of Immigration Canada, but he hasn’t worked there since 1990 (and now works for a right-wing think tank and is hostile to _all_ immigration: see http://www.newswire.ca/en/releases/archive/April2008/16/c6048.html ); it sounds suspiciously like it may have been leaked by a political staffer.

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