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Canadian court decides that referring to drag queens as ‘groomers’ is not protected speech

Published

1 year ago

6 minute read

From LifeSiteNews

By Anthony Murdoch

‘It is reasonable to conclude that the suggestion that … drag performers are ‘groomers,’ merely because of their sexual or performance identity, is defamatory,’ Ontario Superior Court of Justice Tracey J. Nieckarz

A Canadian court ruled that calling a drag queen a “groomer” does not fall within a province’s current protected speech laws in a ruling that could potentially lead to a larger decision that possibly makes it illegal to call men who dress as women, or vice versa, any term deemed offensive.

The court ruling, dated December 14, is in response to a case between Rainbow Alliance Dryden et al v. Webster.

Ontario Superior Court of Justice Tracey J. Nieckarz ruled, “It is reasonable to conclude that the suggestion that … drag performers are ‘groomers,’ merely because of their sexual or performance identity, is defamatory.”

Nieckarz in essence ruled that calling drag performers “groomers” or other names is not protected under Ontario’s anti-SLAPP (strategic litigation against public participation) laws.

The case in question is between a man named Brian Webster, who is a Thunder Bay, Ontario, Facebook blogger, and a local “drag king” who filed a defamation suit against him with the help of the town’s Pride organization, Rainbow Alliance Dryden (RAD). Also involved in the case is Egale Canada, an LGBT group funded by the federal government of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.

The plaintiffs went after Webster via a court battle regarding his Facebook post in which he accused RAD of sexualizing children to recruit them into the LGBT community. In September 2022, Webster posted screenshots on his Facebook page of a CBC news report about RAD drag performance events being planned in Dryden, Ontario, and the surrounding area.

Webster wrote, “ASK YOURSELF WHY THESE PEOPLE NEED TO PERFORM FOR CHILDREN? GROOMERS. That’s the agenda. Just look at the face of the one child in the photo. Tells you all you need to know.”

The plaintiffs argued that Webster’s post resulted in a rash of “hateful” public comments directed at the group.

Webster filed an anti-SLAPP motion to try and have the case dismissed. Ontario’s anti-SLAP rules offer a recourse for defendants to use in lawsuits by bringing forth to have a judge dismiss the case if the case is determined to be a SLAPP, which is a case “intended to silence critics who speak out on matters of public interest by burdening them with the cost of a legal proceeding.”

“The Defendant’s comments went well beyond that, perpetuating hurtful myths and stereotypes about vulnerable members in our society,” the judge wrote. “Webster’s argument that he was accusing the CBC of grooming has no merit based on a plain reading of the post.”

The court found that Webster’s comments were defamatory and that calling drag performers “groomers” could cause harm to their reputation.

After Webster’s anti-SLAPP motion was dismissed, the plaintiffs are now able to proceed with legal action that could eventually result in a ruling that could ban calling drag kings or queens “groomers” in Canada.

Drag queen/king story hours in public places have been on the rise in recent years. Indeed, the drag queen story hour phenomenon traces its 2015 origins to a collaboration between LGBT activist group RADAR Productions and radical feminist author Michelle Tea in San Francisco, as LifeSiteNews previously reported.

South of the border, American lawmakers have introduced legislation to protect children from drag performers. This is not the case in Canada, where children remain vulnerable to attacks from LGBT activists, relying only on parents and concerned citizens to safeguard their innocence.

There has been public pushback to exposing children to LGBT ideology. Pastor Derek Reimer of Calgary, Alberta, was recently charged for protesting a children’s drag queen story hour at a public library. While he was in jail,  his van was vandalized with anti-Christian and Satanic messages.

Reimer is currently fighting his trespassing charges for silently praying in a municipal building in protest of drag queen story times.

Protests against drag queen story times in Calgary led to city officials adopting bylaws banning protests of such events.

According to “Gays against Groomers” in a posting from June 1, “there is NO PRIDE in the sexualization, indoctrination, and mutilation of children.”

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Justice

Democracy watchdog calls for impartial prosecution of Justin Trudeau

Published on March 25, 2025

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From LifeSiteNews

By Anthony Murdoch

Democracy Watch asked that an independent prosecutor be appointed to look over evidence it provided to get permission to carry out a private prosecution of Trudeau’s role in the SNC-Lavalin affair.

One of Canada’s most well-respected democratic watchdog groups says the Ontario government should organize for an impartial prosecutor to investigate former Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s involvement in the SNC-Lavalin affair.  

In a letter dated March 21 written to Ontario’s Attorney General Doug Downey, watchdog Democracy Watch asked directly that an independent prosecutor be appointed to look over evidence from its recent Ontario Court of Justice application to get approval to go ahead with a private prosecution of Trudeau’s role in the 2019 scandal. 

“The RCMP (Royal Canadian Mounted Police) did a very superficial investigation into the Trudeau Cabinet’s obstruction of the prosecution of SNC-Lavalin,” wrote lawyer Duff Conacher, co-founder of Democracy Watch, on behalf of the group’s board of directors.

Conacher noted that the RCMP “didn’t even interview many witnesses or try to obtain key secret Cabinet communication records, and buried the investigation with an almost two-year delay, and then made a behind-closed-doors, very questionable decision not to prosecute anyone.” 

SNC-Lavalin, which now goes by the name “AtkinsRéalis,” in 2019 pleaded guilty to fraud in a Québec Provincial Court and was hit with a $280 million fine. Company executives also admitted that they had paid $47.7 million in bribes to get contracts in Libya. 

In October 2023, Canadian Liberal MPs on the ethics committee voted to stop the RCMP from testifying about the SNC-Lavalin bribery scandal. 

In June 2023, LifeSiteNews reported that the RCMP denied it was looking into whether Trudeau and his cabinet committed obstruction of justice concerning the SNC-Lavalin bribery scandal. 

In its letter, Democracy Watch called up Downey to strike a committee comprised of persons without political party ties to choose an impartial lawyer to be an Independent Special Prosecutor. This prosecutor would review all the evidence and then make a public decision about Trudeau’s involvement in the affair.  

“The RCMP lacks independence from the Prime Minister and Cabinet ministers who handpick the RCMP Commissioner and deputy commissioners and division heads through a secretive process, and they all serve at the pleasure of the Cabinet so they are vulnerable to political interference, which is likely part of the reason the RCMP rolled over and let Trudeau off,” noted Conacher.

Conacher also stated that a public inquiry was needed to see why the RCMP “tried to cover up its investigation” and chose not to prosecute.  

Retired judge also says Trudeau should be prosecuted  

SNC-Lavalin was faced with charges of corruption and fraud concerning about $48 million in payments made to Libyan government officials between 2001 and 2011. The company had hoped to be spared a trial and have its prosecution deferred.

However, in 2019, then-Attorney General Jody Wilson-Raybould did not go along with the request and contended that both Trudeau and his top Liberal officials had inappropriately applied pressure on her for four months to directly intervene in the criminal prosecution of the group.

Jen Danch of Swadron Associates law firm will be representing Democracy Watch for its application, with Wayne Crookes, founder of Integrity B.C., being a key supporter of it.  

Of interesting note is that the application includes an opinion from an unnamed retired superior court justice who also supports the prosecution effort.  

“There are reasonable and probable grounds to believe that the Prime Minister committed the offence of Obstruction of Justice under s. 139(2) of the Criminal Code and possibly the offence of Breach of Trust by a Public Official under s. 122 of the Criminal Code,” wrote the judge. 

“The facts outlined by the Ethics Commissioner and the evidence of Ms. Wilson-Raybould at the House Committee on Justice indicate that the Prime Minister and his staff set out to interfere in the prosecution of SNC-Lavalin by trying to stop the prosecution and replace an apparently properly founded prosecution with a less onerous process that would avoid the consequences of a conviction for SNC-Lavalin.”  

At this time, there will be a hearing in Ottawa on March 28 where a judge will decide procedural processes regarding how or if the prosecution will be allowed to continue.  

Last year, the RCMP confirmed it never talked with Trudeau or was able to view secret cabinet records before declining to levy charges.

As for the initial investigation concerning SNC-Lavalin, Wilson-Raybould testified in early 2019 to Canada’s justice committee that she believed she was moved from her justice cabinet posting to veterans’ affairs due to the fact she did not grant a request from SNC-Lavalin for a deferred prosecution agreement rather than a criminal trial. 

Of note is that a criminal conviction would have banned the company from landing any government contracts for 10 years. 

Trudeau flat-out denied it was being investigated by the RCMP. 

Less than four years ago, Trudeau was found to have broken the federal ethics laws, or Section 9 of the Conflict of Interest Act, for his role in pressuring Wilson-Raybould. 

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Energy

Jury: Greenpeace liable for hundreds of millions in damages over pipeline project protests

Published on March 19, 2025

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The scene outside the county courthouse in Mandan, North Dakota, where a jury held Greenpeace liable for hundreds of millions of dollars in damages over its support of sometimes violent protests of the Dakota Access Pipeline.

From The Center Square

By Morgan Sweeney

A North Dakota jury on Wednesday found environmental activist group Greenpeace liable for hundreds of millions of dollars in damages for its activities related to protests of construction of the Dakota Access Pipeline.

Dallas-based Energy Transfer sued Greenpeace over the sometimes violent protests that delayed construction of the pipeline by five months, costing the company lost profits and shareholder value.

A trial over the civil lawsuit began in February and concluded Wednesday, on the second day of deliberations.

Energy Transfer subsidiary Dakota Access LLC installed the roughly 1,200-mile pipeline running from North Dakota to Illinois in 2016 and 2017. In April 2016, a small group of Sioux set up Sacred Stone Camp, a camp to protest the installation of the pipeline under the river on unceded treaty land for fear that the pipeline could leak and contaminate the river and water supply. They also said the pipeline would disrupt sacred burial grounds and other culturally relevant sites.

With funding and other support from environmental activist group Greenpeace and others, the protest grew and eventually attracted international media attention, especially when clashes with law enforcement became violent. Over 100,000 people descended on rural North Dakota in less than a year, many from other states and possibly some from abroad, according to local residents.

Energy Transfer sued Greenpeace, blaming it for the escalation of the protests that delayed completion of the project by five months. The company says the delay cost them lost profits and shareholder value. It sued Greenpeace for $300 million.

Greenpeace maintained its primary involvement in the protests was sending indigenous nonviolent direct action trainers, camping supplies and a biodiesel-powered solar truck to the site and that the lawsuit against it was an attack on First Amendment rights.

This is a developing story.

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