Why I’m Considering Filing A Human Rights Complaint Against Buzzfeed Canada

Is this acceptable behaviour for an employer?

Is this acceptable behaviour for an employer?

I woke up on Saturday morning to read a shocking article about Buzzfeed Canada’s Senior Writer Scaachi Koul. I wasn’t upset with Buzzfeed’s intention to hire a diversity of writers; variety is a good thing, particularly when it comes to words and ideas. There’s also nothing illegal about running ethically managed affirmative action plan.

If you’ve read most responses in the Canadian media you might have been fooled into thinking that Koul was a victim of a great wrong. BuzzFeed writer’s harassment just the latest example of why Twitter is broken for women, wrote the Globe and Mail; It’s Unacceptable That Scaachi Koul Was Harassed Off Twitter, said the Huffington Post. But as we learned from the Gregory Alan Elliott case, writers for the Globe and Huffington Post aren’t averse to publishing misleading articles for their allies.

Scaachi Koul’s call for submissions wasn’t a simple request for diversity, it was written in a way that left many seeing it as a bigoted and hateful attack. I have no problem if Koul wishes to demonstrate her bigotry, always prefer to know who the bigots are. That said, she crossed the line when she put it into the context of a job ad. Not only is it unlawful to ridicule an identifiable group in an employment situation- but it’s also a slippery slope, one that could hurt people of all identifiable groups.

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Permanent link to this article: https://www.genuinewitty.com/2016/02/24/why-im-considering-filing-a-human-rights-complaint-against-buzzfeed-canada/

City Councillor Weasels Out On Toronto’s Homeless & Syrian Refugees (Feat. Shelley Carroll)

On Wednesday afternoon my good friend Undercoverkity headed over to City Hall to ask a difficult question of city councillor Shelley Carroll. Stalked by a former member of Occupy Toronto lovingly known as PottyMouth, Frank joined the media scrum at the end of the day’s session and asked a very fair question:

“Why is it that we’re finding, miraculously, housing for a whole bunch of refugees when we don’t have housing for the people who actually need them?”

Carroll, being the type of weasel who’d hire an unrepentant ex-convict , responded with weasel words (apologies for PottyMouth’s interruption at the end of the video):

“I’m not going to pit one homeless person against another!”

Ward 33’s “brave” city councillor’s response was to attack a citizen of our fair city with the ugly implication that he was “pitting” homeless people against each other. Besides the fact her response was unnecessarily nasty, there was an even bigger problem- Carroll, as she often is, was full of crap.

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Permanent link to this article: https://www.genuinewitty.com/2016/02/19/city-councillor-weasels-out-on-torontos-homeless-syrian-refugees-feat-shelley-carroll/

City Councillor Bills Taxpayers $904 For Partisan Elections Strategy Conference (Feat. Shelley Carroll)

Hey, big spender!

When it comes to expense reports, Shelley Carroll is one of city council’s big spenders- the representative of Ward 33 has little respect for Toronto taxpayers, consistently spending more than average. In November 2010, this website covered her outrageous expenses for building a website created by a militant labour allied company who didn’t even deliver it on time.

But what should we expect from a member of the Toronto Police Services Board who hired an unrepentant ex-convict who directed protesters to smash windows during the 2010 G20? Or the city councillor who encouraged the complainants in the Gregory Alan Elliott case to “cyber bully” just a few weeks before they started spreading around rumours and misleading the police to believe he was a paedophile? Or a counsellor who runs away when a citizen asks her a hard question in city hall?

The answer is not much, Carroll serves the labour movement more than she serves the people of her constituency- and she’s not afraid to spend taxpayer’s money to fund her partisan activities. Her recent expense report, besides including a few hundred dollars of mileage charges for her ex-con assistant, gives us more evidence of Carroll’s disregard for the city’s taxpayers. Carroll actually had the nerve to expense $904 for a highly partisan election strategy conference.

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Permanent link to this article: https://www.genuinewitty.com/2016/02/18/city-councillor-bills-taxpayers-for-904-partisan-elections-strategy-conference-feat-shelley-carroll/

#GAE Media Spin Unmasked Pt 3: Hollaback Leader Backs Doxxer (Feat. Julie Lalonde, HeartMob)

heartmob-logo

Purely conjecture, but Elliott also uses a heart for his logo

Hollaback is a feminist organization whose main goal is to raise awareness of “street harassment”. Their tactics are controversial, some might say they’re a form of cyber-bullying- allowing women who claimed they’ve been harassed to shame men (because only men harass) by posting their stories, pictures, and videos on the organization’s website. The group was launched in New York City but has chapters around the world.

Hollaback raised a lot of eyebrows on January 27th when, only a few days after Elliott’s exoneration, they announced the launch of HeartMob- an online “‘army of good” that plans to organize individuals to fight back against online trolling. Media reports used Elliott’s case as an example of the type of situation where HeartMob might be useful.

Julie Lalonde is an Ottawa-based “women’s rights activist” and the founder of Hollaback Ottawa. She’s worked on projects with Stephanie Guthrie and has been one of the complainant’s most visible supporters since the end of the trial. Like the other media coverage described in this series, Lalonde’s interviews with the Huffington Post and Ottawa’s 960 News radio have been high on spin while playing fast and loose with the truth.

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Permanent link to this article: https://www.genuinewitty.com/2016/02/08/gae-media-spin-unmasked-part-3-hollaback-leader-backs-doxxer-feat-julie-lalonde-heartmob/

#GAE Media Spin Unmasked Pt 2: Desmond Cole Plays Dirty (Feat. Toronto Star, Newstalk 1010)

Steph Guthrie, Mike Layton, Desmond Cole (2014)

Steph Guthrie, City Councillor Mike Layton, Edward Keenan, & Desmond Cole (2014)

Please click here for Part 1

If it wasn’t for the Toronto Star’s dodgy coverage of social justice warriors it’s likely I wouldn’t be writing this story. I’ve caught some world class lies and misinformation in the Star; they lied about Jane Fonda marching in a climate protest last summer, wrote a horribly misleading story about the government tracking protests in 2014, covered a “heroic” anti-police activist without mentioning his recent crimes, and defied an unrepentant organizer of the G20 violence as a jailhouse activist hero.

In 2012 I wrote a story criticising Star columnist Antonia Zerbisias for diefying another unrepentant G20 convict. I didn’t know her reputation back then, turns out she’s a vicious creep who likes to play dirty. Antonia responded by threatening to include me in a story about Internet stalkers that featured Elliott. A couple weeks later I had an unexpected meeting with Gregory Alan Elliott, he didn’t seem like the monster Zerbisias tried to frame him as. Antonia’s temper tantrum was my primary motivation for investigating Elliott’s case- I really must thank her one day.

Desmond Cole is an anti-police activist, and like Antonia, is a morally bereft character who also likes to play dirty. It was only a week ago when he told two lies on Newstalk 1010. Now, only a few days later, he’s written a sensational story that tells yet another lie- two weeks and three lies!

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Permanent link to this article: https://www.genuinewitty.com/2016/02/05/gae-media-spin-unmasked-pt-2-desmond-cole-plays-dirty-feat-toronto-star-newstalk-1010/

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