05/02/2020 2016 ONCJ 35 (CanLII) | CanLII Recklessness........................................................................................................... 11 Fear for Safety............................................................................................................ 11 The Proof of the Tweets.............................................................................................. 12 The proof that Mr. Elliott sent the tweets attributed to him........................................... 14 The Omission of Recklessness from the Charges..................................................... 20 FACTUAL BACKGROUND.......................................................................................... 28 @amirightfolks – Stephanie Guthrie........................................................................... 28 Mr. Elliott’s interactions with Ms. Guthrie.................................................................... 28 From May 3 to July 6................................................................................................ 33 The Bendilin Spurr affair............................................................................................ 33 From the blocking to the start of the period the information covers – July 7 to 31........ 35 August 1 to September 12........................................................................................ 39 The six November tweets.......................................................................................... 44 Tweets with the hashtags Ms. Guthrie uses................................................................ 45 @LadySnarksAlot – Heather Reilly............................................................................ 48 November 2012, just before the charge...................................................................... 54 ANALYSIS...................................................................................................................... 56 Has the Crown Proven Every Element of the Offence?............................................ 56 Communication on Twitter......................................................................................... 57 Freedom of expression............................................................................................. 58 Hashtags................................................................................................................. 58 ANALYSIS: Stephanie Guthrie................................................................................... 62 Repeated communication.......................................................................................... 62 Was Ms. Guthrie harassed?....................................................................................... 62 Did Mr. Elliott know that Ms. Guthrie was harassed?................................................... 63 Recklessness........................................................................................................... 72 Fear for her safety.................................................................................................... 73 Reasonable in all of the circumstances...................................................................... 74 The circumstances.................................................................................................... 75 ANALYSIS: Heather Reilly.......................................................................................... 79 Repeated communication.......................................................................................... 79 Was Ms. Reilly harassed?......................................................................................... 80 Did Mr. Elliott know that Ms. Reilly was harassed?..................................................... 81 Fear for her safety.................................................................................................... 82 CONCLUSION............................................................................................................... 86     BACKGROUND Introduction Gregory Elliott is charged with criminally harassing two women, Stephanie Guthrie and Heather Reilly, by repeatedly communicating with them knowing that they were harassed; and by the repeated communication causing them to reasonably, in all of the circumstances, fear for their safety. He is also charged with violating a bond binding him to keep the peace. Mr. Elliott, a graphic artist, met Ms. Guthrie once and then exchanged emails with her about his offer to design a poster and a logo for free for her Women in Toronto Politics (WiTOPoli) group, and he may have met her one other time. Mr. Elliott and Ms. Reilly never met and never emailed each other. The case against Mr. Elliott is criminal harassment by “tweeting”, or sending tweets. Tweets are messages that persons with Twitter accounts send to one another or to the world at large. Twitter is a file:///Users/nerissa/Downloads/Columbia CSV/R v Gregory Allan Elliott.htm 2/43