FD in Ottawa Court - July 21st - Baglow Dismissal Motion

[Peter O'Donnell]

I'm packin' ... and that's double plus ungood.

[Maikeru]

I'm packin'...

Peter's packin' a peck of pickled peppers for Johnny's lunchbucket.

[WestViking]

Prayers are up for a fair and impartial hearing tomorrow. We trust that the motions judge will see fit to dismiss the Baglow action with expenses to (you) the defendant. That will seriously set back other actions that you face. I look forward to a future fundraiser where we can support an action taking certain parties to task for defamation and attempted extortion.

[styky]

anything to report

[WestViking]

Been holding my breath until I am light-headed!

[Ogopogo]

Dawg mentions this thread while linking to the Xanthippa post:

The wingnuts discuss my lawsuit against Free Dominion for defamation.

Just to keep the record straight, the Fourniers themselves published several posts “outing” me before any of this blew up, e.g., etc.

And, while I appreciate Xanthippa’s attempt to be arch, I don’t wear cowboy boots!

[Edward Kennedy]

I would like to be there for the hearing. The problem is that it is held in Ottawa. Apart from the distance there is also the matter of the smell. I don't think I could handle being around the stench of politicians that pollutes the air in Ottawa for that long.

Actually the stench of hypocrisy and fascism that emanates form the hrc building would gag the proverbial maggot...not to mention the other side who will be present in the courtroom. If I make it, you will be able to recognize me by the gas mask I will have to wear to tolerate the stench of lieberal shite on two legs walking around.

[Mark Fournier]

There is a chance that we could get a very fast ruling on this but if we don't hear anything by the end of this week it will probably be weeks or months before this is done.

[WestViking]

There is a chance that we could get a very fast ruling on this but if we don't hear anything by the end of this week it will probably be weeks or months before this is done.

This Friday (July 29) is just six working days from the hearing. I would expect a quick decision to take at least fifteen working days (August 12). Remember that it is not just the decision, but writing the decision, the rationale and the citations to support the rationale.

In this case, the decision is precedent setting as the test case from the Ontario courts is new (and a precedent in itself). The decision on your motion should set out guidance on how the new court tests are to be applied. The better the job the hearing judge does on setting out clear reasons for his decisions, the less opportunity there is for an appeal of the decision.

Yes, I am expecting that you will get a favourable decision.

[Peter O'Donnell]

I won't comment on the legal case until after the ruling comes down.

However, just wanted to say that I enjoyed my trip to Ottawa despite the reason for it and the extreme heat, which was particularly problematic coming out of the long cool spring we have had here. Luckily I had lived in Ontario before and knew what to expect from the weather maps, but it still comes as a shocker when that heat blasts into the passageway at the airport (first of two airports being YYZ). Then as I've described elsewhere, the connecting flight to Ottawa had a malfunctioning A/C and the vents were blasting even hotter air than outside. They got that problem solved in about five minutes and Ottawa itself turned out to be only 29 C instead of the 35 that was outside the terminal in Toronto. So that gave me a chance to acclimatize in stages, because the next day was absolutely scorching, at least 37 C in downtown Ottawa without the humidity factored in. And of course we weren't wearing T-shirts and shorts either.

At various times outside of the court day (and it was a full day hanging around then taking part) I was able to get better acquainted with the Fourniers and their lawyer, who I consider to be three remarkable people totally dedicated to your freedom of speech. I had met Connie a few years ago when she spoke at a meeting in B.C., but my contacts with Mark and Barb before this occasion had been telephone chats and e-mail or messages. So it was very nice to meet both of them. There were also several interesting and supportive people who came out to give us some backing and I'll just say this, you might want to think about voting libertarian in the next Ontario election. I noted also that the DND office tower looms large over the Ottawa courthouse (provincial) and that it's only a hop, skip and an internet signal capture from there to the CHRC, where I gave the EK salute. It's all there together, a sort of theme park of government power and legal power wrapped into one enormous lunch break that never ends.

Because my internal clock was badly thrown off by the whole business of going to Vancouver airport in the middle of the night, landing in the heat etc, I found myself wide awake both mornings I was in Ottawa, at about 0500h and so I went off on walkabouts through the city, at a time of day when no tourists or workers were around, and also when the temperature was quite tolerable for walking. It drove home to me that our capital city is an imposing place on a grand scale, but like a museum in some ways, full of ghosts, the oddly placed statues of our political giants past scattered around the Hill, and for the Victorian era, a clear sense of pageantry, the proclaimed nobility of these political giants (I'm thinking mostly of "fathers of Confederation" rather than early PMs) and the rather ambiguous response (in sculpture) of stylized citizens. Our modern politicians obviously are trying to recreate that ambience by projecting themselves as supermen and role models. I think we were best served in the middle of the process by unassuming men like Arthur Meighen, who as far as I could see had failed to gain himself a pigeon roost of his own.

The statue of Mackenzie King was particularly odd, it was stuck in behind the East Block staring towards that building, which I gather is the throbbing heart of the PMO. Laurier had the other side of the building and was looking wistfully off towards Montreal. Well, you can imagine how odd the scene was in general, all these ghostly figures frozen in time, and by lack of contrast, me walking around in a daze.

A second walkabout was more ambitious, it took me past the Hill and the Chateau Laurier, up Sussex Drive which runs north thanks to a kindly jog north of the Ottawa River. You cross the Rideau canal before reaching the Chateau, but the Rideau River comes many blocks later, and in two instalments, since it has decided to flow around an island before dropping into the Ottawa with its two roughly fifty-foot high waterfalls. On the way, you walk past the National Gallery, the Mint (always freshen up with a Mint), many embassies and large government buildings, once you're clear of the Byward Market that lies off to the east of Sussex Drive, and the Cathedral of Notre-Dame which has just seen its twin spires repainted so that it glows in the constant sun. Yes, I went all the way to the end of the Drive, the numbers run down as you go, until you're outside 24 (the abode of PMSH) and across the street from Rideau Gate which is the entrance to a park within which you would find Rideau Hall (the abode of the GG). I forgot to look up Stornoway while planning this jaunt, and I learned later that it is located off to the east in a residential area that I gather is not low-income housing.

Anyway, one odd sight on this walkabout was the closed-down pavilion formerly housing "Canada and the World" which is now just an empty shell with a forlorn sign. That's actually next door to 24 Sussex Drive, separating it from the French embassy. I suppose either the money or the interest ran out on Canada and the World, but no doubt it was a really transformative experience when it was open.

My one big "insight" for the trip was how easy it would be to insulate one's self in the Ottawa cocoon and imagine one's self to be very central, very important, and very urbane, in other words, all the things the mere peons across the country could never hope to be (could they?) unless of course they lived in the other two great Central Hubs deemed worthy to be mentioned in similar tones, by which (if you're really thick) I mean Montreal and Toronto. And yes, it would be possible to be a worthy colonial of this limited (but centrally important to our elites) construct of Canada, if one showed all due deference to the humming hive of largely meaningless activity that goes on in this complex of red-maple-leaf industry and self-congratulation. Suitable colonials might include your west coast savant and scientator, your east coast humorist, or your prairie polite communist.

Unsuitable citizens? Well for that, we have the mirrors in the bathrooms of the hotels. Hello.