05/02/2020 2016 ONCJ 35 (CanLII) | CanLII Ms. Guthrie had enough of Mr. Elliott, the discussion and his views. She tweeted to him: “@greg_a_elliott If you think it’s revenge, you’re not paying attention. I’ve had it with you@rachelmack@emmamwoolley@sysrequest@metricjulie.” She then blocked him from sending tweets to her. Mr. Elliott knew he was blocked because he tweeted: “@amirightfolks Next step may be to unblock me and refollow? I’m not the misogynist game creator you’re looking for, why punish me.” He then included the smiley face and the hashtag #love. Just prior to the Bendilin Spurr dispute flaring up between Ms. Guthrie and Mr. Elliott, and a week after she had shut down Mr. Elliott’s advances by referring to her boyfriend, Ms. Guthrie and Mr. Elliott had exchanged tweets about Greece and panhandlers that involved putting the other’s handle first or in a list at the beginning of the tweet. Mr. Elliott, up to the flare-up, could not have known that Ms. Guthrie was harassed or wanted no contact with him. Quite the opposite. And on the day that she said that she had had it with him, there was a spirited discussion about the strategy used against Bendilin Spurr. Ms. Guthrie tweeted in response to someone who had tweeted to her and Mr. Elliott, “I don’t want him destroyed”; to others including Mr. Elliott, “I want his hatred on the Internet to impact his real-life experience.” From the blocking to the start of the period the information covers – July 7 to 31 The time period that follows is what Ms. Guthrie herself describes as when relations between her and Mr. Elliott took a bad turn. Mr. Elliott continued to participate in the Bendilin Spurr debate. Comments by others involved ranged from opposing Mr. Elliott’s views to questioning them. Crown counsel submits that between July 15 and August 11, he sent 23 tweets either to Ms. Guthrie or tagging her without distinguishing between the two: nine of them began with her handle, and as she had blocked Mr. Elliott, it can’t be known how many of the 23 she saw. This period overlaps the beginning of that covered in the offence period, which begins on August 1. I will divide it in two: from July 7 to July 31, and then August 1 onwards. From July 7 to July 29, Mr. Elliott tweeted 45 times including Ms. Guthrie’s handle. He did know that she had blocked him. To understand his tweeting anything that included Ms. Guthrie’s handle requires looking at the tweets that Mr. Elliott was receiving. On July 7, someone new joined the discussion that Mr. Elliott was having with Ms. Guthrie and others, before she said that she had had enough. This tweeter, J. whose handle was @velocipietonne, had tweeted to Mr. Elliott, “who the fuck are you” and mentioned Ms. Guthrie (@amirightfolks) as well as someone else, @emmamwoolley. Mr. Elliott replied by saying: “who the fuck am I? not as hateful and angry as you. You waste energy hating. There’s a better way.” Mr. Elliott’s tweet is noteworthy for several reasons. The main reason is that Mr. Elliott was answering someone who had attacked him, aggressively and with vulgarity, and who had also tweeted to @amirightfolks, with what is ostensibly a reasonable attempt to bring the conversation back to civil debate. Furthermore, his tweet included the two names that @velocipietonne had included as well as another, @metricjulie. He was communicating indirectly with Ms. Guthrie but I infer that it was in passing and in the context of a fast, multi-directional dispute. At one point that day, he tweeted: “Do what you think is right..thanks for letting me point out what I think is wrong.” The debate continued on July 7. The other tweeters – apparently women by their pictures, avatars or references in their handles such as “sister” – disagreed with Mr. Elliott, but they were debating with him. For example, someone named “Sister Aloysius” tweeted him and Ms. Guthrie saying of Bendilin Spurr: “He’s obviously a big boy and can handle dishing it out.” Mr. Elliott asked if the others in the conversation – but with Ms. Guthrie’s handle first – would be happy if Bendilin Spurr removed his face-punch game. Ms. Guthrie wrote in reference to Mr. Elliott to @rachelmack, a friend of hers also engaged in the discussion: “Don’t bother. This guy is an MRA who disguises his feelings about women with a cloak of ‘care’ for their freedom.” “Sister Aloysius” was still engaging Mr. Elliott and told him, with Ms. Guthrie’s and the others’ handles added, to “put down the MRA crap now” if he wanted to earn her respect. “MRA” means Men’s Rights Activist, Ms. Guthrie testified. Mr. Elliott was calling the others’ approach to Mr. Spurr’s hateful face-punch game revenge. @rachelmack was saying that it wasn’t, that it was just desserts. Another person, again tweeting to everyone in on the debate by adding their handles, said that he or she did not want Mr. Spurr destroyed. file:///Users/nerissa/Downloads/Columbia CSV/R v Gregory Allan Elliott.htm 19/43