05/02/2020 2016 ONCJ 35 (CanLII) | CanLII Also on August 9, Mr. Elliott tweeted to Ms. Reilly: “@ladysnarksalot ignoring you is easy. I’m just not that ‘into’ you. As I said, you comment on #TOpoli your comments are open to comment.” Two hours later, Det. Bangild’s Sysomos search found, Mr. Elliott sent two tweets to someone whose handle was @whyteappleby: @whyteappleby.@ladysnarksalot Agreed…methinks the Snarky Lady doth profess too much… If you don’t understand Twitter…leave#TOpoli and @whyteappleby My tone is fine til control-freaks like .@ladysnarksalot try to change the rules of Twitter. “Creeping” the #TOpoli hashtag? Once again the expanded printed exhibit 2B shows the context of Mr. Elliott’s tweets and gives much more information. I have considered these tweets, not for their truth but as being sent. The expanded exhibit 2B that relates to Ms. Reilly shows that @whyteappleby, a stranger as far as I can determine, entered into a Twitter conversation with both Ms. Reilly and Mr. Elliott, as a mediator. @whyteappleby tweeted a suggestion (with some ambiguity because of the grammar or perhaps Twitter brevity): “@LadySnarksalot@greg_a_elliott Can we not call following a popular hashtag ‘creeping’? That literally the purpose of Twitter.” Mr. Elliott’s tweet about leaving Twitter was a response to this. Then @whyteappleby tweeted to both, “Well, to be fair, methinks your tone sucks too.” Mr. Elliott replied about his tone in the tweet above. Det. Bangild picked this up, as set out above, as it was from Mr. Elliott and contained Ms. Reilly’s handle. In an exchange with Ms. Reilly, @whtyeappleby advised that the comment about the tone sucking was not about Ms. Reilly. Ms. Reilly replied, “Thanks, I wasn’t sure why he went nasty.” In short, this was a Twitter conversation among three people, not Mr. Elliott gratuitously using Ms. Reilly’s handle. It was a conversation about an issue near the heart of this case: the purpose of Twitter and whether following a hashtag can be considered “creeping”. On August 12 Ms. Reilly retweeted others’ tweets that criticized Mr. Elliott and told him to stop acting like a misogynist and harassing women. The same day, Mr. Elliott tweeted to Ms. Reilly: “Hey@LadySnarksalot Why ‘favourite’ my tweet when you say you want NO interaction with me? Make up your mind. #Topoli#TOmedia”. Ms. Reilly in cross-examination conceded that that was a fair comment. In examination-in-chief, she explained that Mr. Elliott’s use of #TOpoli meant that anyone reading tweets related to #TOpoli would see his comment even though it was not relevant to #TOpoli. Also on August 12, Ms. Reilly retweeted tweets from men whom she perceived as supporting her because they were telling Mr. Elliott to stop engaging her and stop harassing women on Twitter. She was able to choose from among a variety of tweets to retweet, as Mr. Elliott had critics on Twitter. One of Mr. Elliott’s tweets in reply was the explicitly homophobic one that I have mentioned. On August 24 and 25, Ms. Reilly retweeted or modified seven tweets criticizing Mr. Elliott. Then on the 28th, Mr. Elliott quoted Ms. Reilly’s comment on a tweet by someone who supported him: “she appears to be an ally of Greg Elliott’s…I’d wager she’s probably one to ignore” but preceded that with “Snark. How fat IS your ass?” The original tweet is not in evidence, because if Ms. Reilly wrote to another person separate from an exchange with Mr. Elliott, it would not appear in the evidence. On the same day, Ms. Reilly tweeted with a period before Mr. Elliott’s handle so that not only his followers but the “whole world” would see it, according to her evidence: “. @greg_a_elliott Just couldn’t ignore me, huh? Leave me the fuck alone.” However, the space between the period and his handle, perhaps a typographical error, may mean that it did not have this effect. According to the printout of the Sysomos search, Mr. Elliott did not contact Ms. Reilly from August 14 to 28. His one tweet on the 28th purporting to quote her, after saying “Snark. How fat IS your ass”, was three days after she had sent the seven retweets and modifications with such messages as “I wish you’d disappear up your own arse you supercilious fart golem”, “He’s apparently a multiple-times harasser/creepo on twitter” and “Don’t like @greg_a_elliott misogynistic rants so use them against him. Stencil his harassing tweets next to his own art Attribute Accordingly.” On August 29 and 30, after Ms. Reilly tweeted him to leave her “the fuck alone,” Mr. Elliott tweeted: “Heather’s fat ass gets fatter”. He used #TOpoli and then quoted Ms. Reilly tweeting someone else: file:///Users/nerissa/Downloads/Columbia CSV/R v Gregory Allan Elliott.htm 26/43