Arthur Topham Explains His Response to Warman’s Libel Threat
Dear Free Speech Supporter:
Let’s never confuse Canada’s cankered legal system with fairness or justice. It may be the “law” but it isn’t necessarily fairness or justice.
Free speech hero and anti-Zionist advocate Arthur Topham, is currently fighting a very serious Sec. 319 (“hate law”) charge, instigated by Richard( the chronic complaint filer Warman) and Harry (“Mr. B’nai Brith B.C.”) Abrams. Not surprisingly, the complaint was swiftly adopted by the political police out in BC, the RCMP hate squad headed by Det. Const. Terry Wilson, ex of the London Police Service hate Squad.
These charges could send Mr. Topham to prison for two years. His silencing has for some years been the goal of Canada’s thought police. In 2007, Harry Abrams who had previously tried to use the B.C. Human Rights Commission to silence war hero and columnist Doug Collins, filed a complaint against Arthur Topham and his Zionist-critical website radical[press.com. under Se. 13 of the Canadian Human Rights Act (truth is no defence, intent is no defence). When Marc Lemire won his case — against yet another Warman complaint — on September 2, 2009, the Canadian Human Rights Tribunal adjourned the several outstanding complaints, including the one against Arthur Topham and Radicalpress.com, sine die.
So, Abrams and Warman, in an effort to silence Mr. Topham, then launched the present Sec. 319 “hate law” charges.
Back in 2005, speaking to the violence-prone Anti-Racist Action (ARA) and then in a boastful and expansive mood, Mr. Warman explained the tactic he called “maximum disruption.” He indicated that, depending on the circumstances and his mood, he’d file Sec. 13 (now repealed by Parliament) human rights complaints and or Criminal Code Sec. 319 complaints against his ideological targets.
He didn’t add, but he might have, that should the victims criticize him, they might find themselves subject to a libel suit. In fact. Mark and Connie Fournier of the pro-Zionist but pro-free speech FreeDominion.com website, who face no fewer than three Warman libel suits, indicate that, by their reckoning, Warman has filed or threatened to file no fewer than 60 (yes, sixty!) defamation actions against critics over the past 13 years.
So, in the effort to silence Arthur Topham and Radicalpress.com, the Sec. 13 having been stymied, Mr. Warman and Abrams filed the Sec. 319 “hate law” charges. When the gutsy Arthur Topham refused to be silenced and continued to post his contentious critiques of Richard Warman on his website the latest libel threat was issued. Maximum disruption!
I’ve been there. From 2003 to final resolution, when the Supreme Court of Canada refused to hear our appeal in 2009. CAFE and I fought a Richard Warman libel suit aimed at CAFE’s efforts to defend the victims of Warman’s Sec. 13 complaints,. Ultimately, I can’t explain it or believe it, but Madame Justice Monique Metivier decided that our calling Richard Warman a “censor” was libellous. So, here’s one state-protected person around whom we must tip-toe carefully.
I know it’s not the free Anglo-Saxon system of open discussion we thought we’d inherited, but it’s the perverse legal reality of the present in a Canada with a judicial system, at least at the very top, firmly in the control of the cultural Marxists. We llive in enemy occupied territory where many truths can be told, if at all, only with great circumspection.
Purists may say that Arthur should fight and stand by the truths of his postings. The problem is that justice in this poxy country, as even several of the members of the current Supreme Court have noted, is beyond the means of the ordinary man. Arthur Topham has elected to withdraw from the libel fight and accept the imposition of extreme caution in mentioning the name of Canada’s legal establishment’s fair haired boy, Richard Warman and, despite his destitution, compensate the posh Ottawa civil servant $500 for his legal fees. Those who might criticize Mr. Topham should answer the simple question: “Along with your keyboard commando critique, have you sent him a cheque for $50,000 to carry on the fight?” A libel case would almost certainly be held for the complainant’s convenience close to home in Ottawa. How is the impoverished Arthur Topham,who can barely afford the gas money to go to Quesnel, to fund a libel case that could last weeks in far-off Ottawa? Mr. Topham seems to think the action would be fought in Toronto. Warman’s previous modus operandi suggests the venue would actually be his present home town of Ottawa.
The Ontario courts in Ottawa are hostile territory. A lawyer told me some years ago “the courts here don’t like you guys” — meaning free speech supporters. That would be the hostile environment in which Westerner and free thinker — both outsider groups in Ottawa — Arthur Topham would have to fight. Justice in Canada today is for the rich or the government-funded, not for rock scrabble freethinking pensioners like Arthur Topham.
Warman’s threat of libel action, of course, comes strategically just as Arthur Topham’s “hate law” case begins. It is difficult, with limited resources, to fight on two fronts. Warman, who has, one assumes a full time job somewhere in the Department of National Defence, seems to somehow find endless time for a legion of lawsuits and complaints. Outside the weird Ottawa world, a libel suit consumes one’s life. I know, having been there with a previous Warman defamation action that gobbled up six years (!) of my time and effort, interestingly at the very time I was being hounded by the Ontario Teachers’ Federation in a prolonged and equally costly action to take away my teaching certificate for expressing on by own time, off school property, my political beliefs.
Bottom line: Arthur Topham continues to need and shall receive our support for his battle against the forces of thought control seeking to send him to jail for his views through the current Sec. 319 “hate law” charges he presently faces.
Paul Fromm
Director
CANADIAN ASSOCIATION FOR FREE EXPRESSION
RadicalPressNewsLetter
Warman Libel Suit Threat Against Radical Press
by
Arthur Topham
July 22, 2013
“He who fights and runs away
May live to fight another day;
But he who is in battle slain,
Can never rise to fight again.”
~Oliver Goldsmith, (1728 – 1774),
Art of Poetry on a New Plan, Vol. 2
On the evening of Wednesday, July 3, 2013 a car drove up my driveway and parked in the yard. An elderly man got out holding a large brown envelope in his hand and was proceeding to walk toward the house when I came out on the front porch. He asked, “Are you Arthur Topham?” I replied, “That depends on who you are.”
He broke out in a kind of a half laugh, half grin and came up to hand me the envelope. I asked him what it was and he again replied in a rather subdued tone that it was from some law firm from back east with a name he couldn’t pronounce. At that point my wife also walked out on the front steps and asked him point blank, “Is it from Richard Warman?” He said no, but he thought it mentioned his name and had something to do with him.
As he walked away, as if to cover his back, he mumbled something about being “only the messenger”.
I went back into the house and sat down at the kitchen table, opened the envelope and read the enclosed letter. It was from Jeff Saikaley of the law firm of Caza Sailaley out of Toronto. It began, “Dear Sir: Re: Richard Warman Libel Notice.”
The origin of the supposed offending, libellous and defamatory piece was an article by Marc Lemire which I had received from him December 31, 2012 titled, “Richard Warman’s ‘Maximum Disruption’ Attacks upon Freedom of Speech in Canada”. I published it on the RadicalPress.com website January 3, 2013 and added a Preface of my own comments. It was the Preface which Richard Warman was objecting to and using as the basis for his notice.
Having finished reading the letter out loud my wife left the room, obviously upset. I went upstairs to my office to consider what my response would be to this latest legal missile from the same person who, along with B’nai Brith Canada’s representative Harry Abrams, had laid the Sec. 319(2) “hate crime” complaint against me and RadicalPress.com back in 2012; one that culminated in my arrest on May 16th, 2012 and the seizure of all of my computers, electronic files as well as my firearms.
Not being the type of person who takes threats of this nature lightly I had a lot of things to consider over the next few days, apart from getting ready for the July 9, 2013 court appearance. Having observed Warman’s incessant, vexatious tactics of filing libel and defamation suits against anyone who he felt was not treating him in the manner in which he was accustomed to being treated by those such as the Jewish lobbyists here in Canada like the Canadian Jewish Congress, who, in the past have presented special awards to Mr. Warman for his efforts in combatting what they erroneously perceive to be “racism” and “anti-Semitism”, I realized that this latest assault was one that I would have to deal with quickly if I wanted to avoid yet another lengthy and most likely fruitless legal battle.
Warman was demanding a full retraction and apology for the things I had said about him in my Preface and he also wanted both my comments plus Lemire’s article removed from RadicalPress.com and the retraction posted where the article once was and left there permanently. I was to post the retraction/apology as the lead article on the website for five days in a row as well.
After deliberating on this ultimatum I contacted some of my legal friends for advice and it was suggested that given my overall situation with respect to the already onerous legal burdens now before me that it would be best to bow out of this additional brawl with Warman and avoid what would likely be the inescapable result.
Having no funds to hire a lawyer was the first consideration that I had to face. Given that this libel threat would be a civil suit there would be no possibility of obtaining a Rowbotham application as in my present sec. 319(2) criminal charge, also brought on by Warman. Without counsel the case would likely be heard in Toronto and that would necessitate my having to travel across Canada in order to fight it. Given that I struggle to find enough gas to get into Quesnel, a distance of approximately 30 km, the chances of finding the fuel and money to survive a trip out to Toronto (or possibly more than one trip) would be extremely thin if not impossible. Then of course was the possibility of being found guilty and having to face a huge fine which, because I wouldn’t be able to afford to pay it, would likely mean a judgment registered against my home. Given all of these factors it was easy to see (being a placer miner or not) that I was between a rock and a very hard place. Having placed my pawn in the direct path of Warman’s queen there was little left for me to do but retract.
On July 8th, 2013 I replied to Warman’s lawyer and stated the following:
I am in receipt of your June 27, 2013 letter which was hand delivered to me on the evening of July 3, 2013.
I have read it through and given it my full consideration.
Given the fact that I am currently facing two legal challenges to my constitutional right to freedom of speech on the Internet, i.e. a Section 13(1) complaint plus a Section 319(2) CCC which your client Mr. Richard Warman, along with Mr. Harry Abrams, conspired to initiate against me, I recognize that a third legal action is beyond my present ability to meet.
Mr. Warman, as I am confident you are well aware, knows full well that I am presently without legal counsel due to the untimely death of my former solicitor Mr. Douglas Christie and that my financial situation is such that, of necessity, I am currently forced to represent myself pro ce in both the Sec. 319(2) charge and the stayed Sec. 13(1) complaint pending the outcome in the Warman v Lemire appeal now before the federal court. A third civil libel suit wherein I would be basically at the mercy of forces beyond my immediate capacity to deal with is therefore not an option for me.
I recognize that I am caught between the proverbial rock and a hard place and therefore am willing to meet Mr. Warman’s demands, as contained in your letter of June 27, 2013, to publish a complete retraction and apology for the allegations contained in my January 1, 2013 Article entitled “Richard Warman’s ‘Maximum Disruption’ Attacks upon Freedom of Speech in Canada from Marc Lemire at freedom site.org” located at URL http://www.radicalpress.com and a unique website page containing the Article at http://www.radicalpress.com/?
Prior to removing said Article from www.radicalpress.com I would like written confirmation from your office stating that in doing so the matter would be concluded and no further vexatious repercussions would arise from the Article.
As well I will do everything in my capacity as the copyright holder to have all third party republications of my Article removed.
Please advise if these steps are sufficient to meet your client’s demands and if so I will proceed to fulfil them immediately.
On July 11th, 2013 I received a reply from Jeff Saikaley stating:
Dear Mr. Topham:
Thank you for your note. I confirm that if you fulfill the conditions outlined in my letter of 27 June 2013 within 24 hours and pay Mr. Warman’s expenses of $500 incurred to date no later than 15 calendar days from this email, then Mr. Warman is prepared to not proceed with the libel action against you.
I wrote Saikaley back confirming that I would immediately attend to fulfilling all the demands stated in his initial letter and that I would send the $500.00 blood money before the allotted time period ended.
Following that I sent out an appeal to my list asking for financial help in raising the money to pay Warman. I’m extremely happy and grateful for the fact that help came in time to meet the deadline. I am still awaiting final confirmation from Warman’s lawyer that he received the postal money order that I sent off to him via registered snail mail. Once that is done then hopefully this will be the end of it.
Should anything further arise of a weird nature I will alert readers to it but as it now stands it looks like this episode in the history of Canada’s struggles to maintain the right to freedom of speech is now over.
My sincerest thanks on behalf of myself and my dear wife for all the support and financial assistance that was forthcoming. God bless you all.
Arthur Topham
Pub/Ed
The Radical Press
“Digging to the root of the issues since 1998”
——
PLEASE NOTE: Now that Section 13 is dead that still leaves me having to carry on with my own Section 319(2) criminal charge laid against me by Richard Warman and Harry Abrams. With the untimely death of my former lawyer Douglas Christie I am all the more in need of financial support in order to carry on the fight to retain my fundamental rights to publish on the Internet.
The struggle to retain our inherent right to freedom of speech doesn’t come without costs both financially and otherwise. Out of necessity, I am forced to ask for financial assistance in this ongoing battle with the foreign Zionist lobbyist/censors who are determined to stop all freedom of expression in Canada.
Being a ‘Senior Citizen’ on a very limited pension and having now been denied assistance by Legal Aid services here in B.C. I’m left in the unenviable position of having to rely solely upon donations from supporters to pay my legal and related expenses.
I would ask readers to give serious consideration to helping out by either sending a donation via PayPal using either a PayPal account or a credit card or else sending a cheque or Money Order or cash to me via snail mail at the following postal address. Please don’t make the cheque out to “RadicalPress” as that account is no longer available to me.
Arthur Topham
4633 Barkerville Highway
Quesnel, B.C
Canada
V2J 6T8
To access my PayPal button please go to either the Home Page at http://www.radicalpress.com
For Freedom of Speech, Justice for All,
Sincerely,
Arthur Topham
Pub/Ed
The Radical Press