Richard Warman's Censorship Sideshow

Richard Warman: His best side.

That self-serving legal maladroit Richard Warman is making waves again with his so-called Maximum Disruption Campaign. The latest has the anti-rightwing, anti-conservative, anti-freedom of speech legal beagle launching an all-out attack against a number of conservative writers and internet forums.

It’s no secret that Warman is only interested in getting his ugly mug in front of the cameras and that his intentions have nothing to do with erasing websites whose content or subject matter fall into his definition of ‘hate’. This employee of Canada’s Department of National Defense (feel safer now?) and long-time lackey of the Canadian Human Rights Commission has a rap sheet full of attempts at imposing censorship.


Here's a response from one of the targets named in the mad rush to censor. As posted on Free Dominion:


Mark Fournier Free Dominion April 09, 2008

"Silence! I sue you!" Dichmed - the litigating censorship bomber

The silent sound of censorship has been Richard Warman's goal since long before he ever came to our attention, and the CHRC has been on the same quest right beside him. In the end, what was the CHRC planning to 'do' to Free Dominion after it added it to its 100% conviction total? The CHRC was going to silence the website because that's what the CHRC does.

The Marie-Line Gentes complaint against Free Dominion was utter nonsense from the outset. According to the CHRC, out of the blue some infidel woman from Quebec was so offended (on behalf of Muslims who hadn't bothered to actually be offended themselves) by a link that appeared on Free Dominion that she considered the site to be a hate site deserving of the censoring punishment-by-process that is the specialty of the CHRC. The CHRC agreed with Gentes assessment of Free Dominion as a hate site and informed us that the wheels of injustice were grinding our way.

Things have gone downhill for the CHRC and Richard Warman since that day.

Today we received a package in the mail (requested by us) from the CHRC containing what they say is all the information they have on Mark Fournier, Connie Fournier, Connie Wilkins, Connie Wilkins-Fournier and Free Dominion. The package contained nothing we had not already seen or were not already aware of. This is not a disappointment to us because the absence of additional information has implications that are not good for the CHRC.

For example, CHRC investigator Dean Steacy has testified that he only registered at websites using the name jadewarr to put them under, or while they were under, investigation by the CHRC. When he was confronted with the fact that he began his investigation of Free Dominion months before the Gentes complaint was filed he retreated to vague references of other kinds of complaints that might have been received about FD. When he was asked the names of these alleged unofficial complainers he refused to answer. He didn't say that there were no names to give, he said he refused to give them. No documentation of the content of these alleged complaints, or of how they were received, or of who they were received by, was included in the package we received from the CHRC. As it stands, we have Dean Steacy's word, and Dean Steacy's word only, that there was any complaint at all about Free Dominion that preceded Marie-Line Gentes complaint. His evidence for existence of these alleged complaints is effectively, "Trust me, they exist."

I don't, and I don't think they ever did.

So why was the government of Canada using its censorship arm to investigate Free Dominion in the first place? If Free Dominion is, or was, a hate site, why hasn't the CHRC acted beyond supporting the lame-assed complaint of Marie-Line Gentes? And why was Free Dominion suddenly fighting a deluge of accusations of being a hate/Nazi/white supremacist/ist/phobe site? Who was the source of that smear job and why does it so closely resemble the recently-discredited smear job of Marc Lemire?

Logic 101: Pop quiz Who would have the most interest in seeing Free Dominion tarred as a hate site?

a) Roger Oxbow and the Estavan, Sask. Knights of Columbus

b) Huey Lewis and the News

c) Richard Warman and the CHRC

To the best of our knowledge, there is no official connection between Richard Warman and Marie-Line Gentes or her complaint or the CHRC's investigation of the Gentes complaint. But shortly after the CHRC's attempt to silence Free Dominion was shortcircuited by Gentes withdrawing her complaint, the CHRC's preferred customer, Richard Warman, litigated his way into our lives. Is there any reason to believe his intention in doing so was different from the CHRC's? Richard Warman is filing suits to silence political opinions because that's what Richard Warman does.

Our freedom of expression is at risk from this leftwing nutjob. If Free Dominion goes, other forums will follow. Like a virus, Warman’s appetite will only grow with success until everyone’s public opinion – from forums to blogs and news columns – will be targeted.