Guthrie: “Mainly concerned that it might have been left by one Greg A Elliott” (Photo: National Post)
On November 22, 2012 Gregory Alan Elliott was released on bail after being charged with Criminal Harassment. One of his alleged three victims, Stephanie Guthrie, claimed that Elliott’s Twitter messages were “creepy” and that he made her feel unsafe. Elliott’s bail conditions banned him from using email or the internet- he’s now been offline for 849 days.
The trial began in January 2014 and has been slowly grinding through our high viscosity court system. As each trial day passes the case against Elliott is looking increasingly weak- charges alleged victim Paisley Rae were dropped while she was still making her testimony. Elliott’s lawyer is arguing that the charges were a setup- a conspiracy to shut-up Elliott’s loud opposition to their political views (Elliott describes himself non-partisan, but has pissed-off a lot of people).
One would think that a person in Guthrie’s situation would be sensible enough to avoid making public comments that could cause further instability to her case. But as Guthrie demonstrated through her testimony, she’s a strong believer in vigilante justice- going as far as to tell the court that she believed it was okay if a man got hurt as a result of his personal information being published online. And now it appears that she’s following the same pattern, making a public accusation against Elliott that he might be the person who sent her a death threat.
Why talk about this online?
In a string of messages connected to Guthrie’s Twitter account, she claimed on March 18th that she was the victim of a “death threat”. When asked about the threat Guthrie first explained that she was trying to figure out who sent the message. Next, after being asked it it was a good idea to take the situation to the police, she responded saying:
“They can. I’m considering reporting. Mainly concerned that it might have been left by one Greg A Elliott”
When Elliott was asked about Guthrie’s allegations today he responded saying that he’s never made a death threat before to anyone:
“I cannot comment on this specific instance because we are still in court. But, I assure you, I have never threatened anyone with death – verbally, physically, written, smoke signals, or through any electronic media. It should also be noted that I cannot threaten death via the whispering voices in someone else’s troubled mind, theoretically.”
It was made very clear, from the first day of Elliott’s trial, that he’s not been accused of making any threats- this was acknowledged by the Crown. Guthrie’s online slacktivism has caused many people to get upset with her brand of vigilante justice, it’s even more likely the undisclosed “threat” came from someone she’s targeted in her past. Death threats, of course, should be taken seriously- shouting out unfounded public accusations about who made them is the opposite of that.
The case goes back to trial on March 30th, by then Elliott will have been banned from using email and the Internet for 856 days, in a situation where it’s acknowledged that no threats have ever been made. There’s something deeply disturbing about this- all based on Gurthrie’s allegations he made her feel “creepy”. Stay-tuned for more reports as the trial progresses.
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If anyone reading this happens to get the opportunity to communicate with Greg offline, let him know a great many of people are supporting him.
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I’ll make sure to send him the message at the courthouse on the 30th…
Abby updates on this? I’ve been waiting patiently for months. Guthrie is literally the worst.
Saw your tweet… I thought this was tossed out because of shenanigans? This case reeks of politics and even Gamergate people are talking about it.
Also noticed the prosecutor’s father was a high-ranking Liberal who works at Bennett Jones.
Author
That’s very interesting, can you remind me of the prosecutor’s name?
The crowns name is Marnie Leigh Goldenberg
Here is a interesting link to the Reddit account of the person “Ontario Paralegal” who wrote the amicus curaie to the judge alleging conspiracy on the part of the complainants (he was a former friend of one of the women). You might be able to contact him via his Reddit account. He might be able to provide an interesting update. According to his reddit posts the Toronto Police tried to intimidate him after he submitted his amicus curaie and he claims the RCMP were looking into the matter
https://www.reddit.com/user/ontarioparalegal
I am curious if there are any updates? March 30th. has come and gone.
Did the prosecution rest it’s case? Has the defense presented it’s case?
My understanding of the law is the Judge could throw out all charges before the defense presents its case. I wonder if that is what is going to happen? I would think (HOPE) that a judge would throw this case out at the first available chance. I don’t know how it got this far in the first place! Steph Guthrie, Paisley Rae and Heather Reilly MUST be charged with criminal mischief and sent to prison for the maximum sentence. I also hope that GAE will sue them civilly and that they will be wiped out financially for the rest of their lives and forced to live on the street. The idiot Toronto cop who filed the charges – Jeff Bangild should be fired and charged with malicious prosecution along with the idiot crown prosecutor and everyone else involved in the persecution of GAE.
Some notes:
Elliott used #FascistFeminists (plural) and rarely #FascistFeminist (singular).
On closer inspection, the Toronto Star, Torontoist and Now Magazine reporters who seem to be friends with Guthrie and the others started using the singular hashtag to direct curious readers to tweets made by parody Twitter accounts of Elliott. perhaps to make sure no one would research the story fully. Also maybe to lead people to their pro-Guthrie blogs and stories.
The Star also started misspelling Elliott’s full name when the trial started favouring Elliott.
Proper spelling is “Gregory Alan Elliott”.
Some one should tell Christie Blatchford of The National Post to use Elliott’s full name, with middle name, as Blatchford’s fair and accurate articles about the trial are being buried by those sympathetic to Guthrie et al. Some suspect Guthrie has a lot of friends, Women Who Write Code types, who have the talents and know-how to skew Google Search results.
Greg, Do you know if there are any updates? The last I read I thought the final arguments were going to be made the first week in July but I have not seen any reporting on this. Still can’t believe that this wasn’t tossed out long ago. I hope after GAE is acquitted that Guthrie and Co. are arrested and charged with public mischief. Also the idiot cop Jeff Bangild should be fired and charged under the police act.
LOL, Kevin … your various wishful scenarios here really burn your cred. Hoping some magic charges get thrown at people you’ve decided you don’t like kind of contradicts the whole “you can’t just punish people you don’t like” position many GAE defenders hold, and is also just … moonbatty as heck.
Even the arresting officer – the idiot Jeff Bangild – testified that NONE of GAE’s 1000’s of tweets contained any threats whatsoever – in other words there was never any basis for making an arrest. Accordingly Guthrie and the other complainants MUST be charged with public mischief – a serious offense that could land them behind bars. I also hope that GAE sues TPS for MILLIONS for what is clearly a case of malicious prosecution.
I hope we see a conclusion very soon. I just became aware of the case myself. I was very disappointed to find, during my Google browsing for more information, that jezebel.com painted a very one-sided picture when they first reported on this in 2012. Only mention of GAE’s actions, labelling him an abuser, using the case to soapbox about the abuse and harassment women face online, and what they considered to be incompetence and ineptitude on the part of private companies when it comes to dealing with these abusers.
Not one mention of why he said anything to the women. No mention of what the women were doing in the first place. It was one of the most one-sided articles I have seen in a long time.
It is just the way of life since the bleeding hearts and politically correct participants in our now unjust society have control of our lives. This country does not need the human rights tribunals where the human rights are in the accusers corner. The defendants rights are virtually suspended and the defendant gets to pay his or her own way, the plaintiff gets the support of the taxpayer and even when the defendant is vindicated, he still gets to pay. This trial is another case of an abuse of the system where the defendant is virtually at the mercy of a judge, who if that judge is of the correct or as it may be the incorrect leaning as the case may be, GAE will either get off or do time. I still don’t know how this case got this far. I am hoping for GAE and when the dust settles, I hope he has the recourse to get paid for the destruction of his life because of a whim .
If you dig deeper you see just how much Guthrie wants to squelch free speech in service to her personal opinions and any sense she had here (let’s be honest, probably very little) of being victimized by this man. I absolutely call myself a feminist and I absolutely can’ t stand when others who also do suppress the voice of others. If we want our sometimes radical opinions to be heard, we have to insistent that others are afforded the same privilege. Yeah, I think a Voice for Men is stupid, but it IS a free country, and I thought Canada was too. Canada is well on its way to becoming Sweden. And they’re doing so well in the democracy and free speech department. Pathetic. I’m gonna support GAE on that crowdfund site.