A Thunder Bay drag performer who efficiently sued a Fb blogger for defamation over baseless accusations of pedophilia says she hopes the case serves as a cautionary story to those that visitors in anti-LGBTQ+ slurs and hate speech.
“I need them to know that they must be afraid to be bigots once more, as a result of we’re bored with it,” mentioned Felicia Crichton, one of many three drag performers who gained their instances towards the administrator of a Thunder Bay Fb web page.
Brian Webster was ordered to pay $380,000 in mixed damages to tug performers and a Dryden, Ont.-area LGBTQ+ non-profit after a choose discovered he falsely and recklessly accused them of being “groomers” in posts about drag story time occasions at libraries in northwestern Ontario.
Crichton mentioned the ruling was a reduction and an indication individuals who peddle in hate is not going to discover impunity on social media.
“They appear to imagine that there have been glory days after they had been allowed to imagine this with completely no recourse. And I believe that the one fact in that’s that there was a time when social media didn’t join us so rapidly, and it wasn’t really easy to have a paper path of the whole lot that you simply’ve mentioned,” she mentioned.
“There are receipts now.”
The performers and Rainbow Alliance Dryden sued Webster in two separate instances, alleging he accused them of being “groomers” and “grooming” youngsters in his posts about their drag story time occasions in Thunder Bay and Dryden. One of many posts additionally linked to net pages about unrelated individuals who had been allegedly charged with little one pornography offences.
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Webster responded with likes and laughing emojis to feedback on these posts from 2022 that in flip accused the performers – whose names and footage had been in some instances seen – of being pedophiles, mentally in poor health and sexually abusive, the court docket heard.
The choose thought of how the slur has lengthy been used to falsely accuse and assault LGBTQ+ individuals of being pedophiles and recruiting younger individuals into being homosexual and transgender. The court docket heard how use of the slur has seen an uptick in response to tug story hour at libraries, age-appropriate occasions the place drag performers learn books to children in a manner that’s meant to assist foster inclusion of LGBTQ+ households and create constructive schooling alternatives for younger individuals.
Thunder Bay Superior Court docket Justice Helen Pierce granted a abstract judgment towards Webster in a ruling dated Feb. 20.
“The defendant meant to smear the reputations of the person plaintiffs and RAD with the message that they used their drag queen/king persona and actions to groom youngsters for sexual abuse,” learn the choice.
“There may hardly be a extra damning message than that, unfold throughout the web. The message was clearly understood by Mr. Webster’s readership: he referred to as the plaintiffs pedophiles.”
Webster’s lawyer James Kitchen mentioned in an e-mail that his shopper had not instructed him to hunt an enchantment, however he wouldn’t be shocked if that modifications. He didn’t remark additional on the judgment.
The ruling famous Webster was residing in Calgary and dealing in development. The Fb web page, which the court docket heard routinely shared anti-LGBTQ+ posts, seems to have been inactive since 2023.
Drag performers and organizers in cities throughout Canada have been repeatedly topic to violent dying threats over drag story hours in recent times, usually forcing the occasions to be cancelled or rescheduled.
The ruling famous that hate crimes in Canada motivated by sexual orientation had elevated by 388 per cent from 2016 to 2023. An skilled witness for the drag performers famous Canada’s intelligence company in 2024 warned of the approaching risk of extremist-inspired violence towards the LGBTQ+ neighborhood.
Douglas Judson, the lawyer for the drag performers, referred to as final week’s judgment a landmark determination that helped set up case regulation round how “groomer terminology” has been wielded towards performers and the LGBTQ+ neighborhood.
“Now we have an entire repudiation of the suggestion that one of these hate speech has any public curiosity worth,” he mentioned.
The performers within the case have talked about how Webster’s posts and the next fallout made them concern for his or her security and their reputations.
Caitlin Hartlen, a Dryden-based performer who works for an Indigenous little one and household providers company and is co-chair of RAD, anxious their skilled fame and neighborhood standing could be hampered by the defamatory accusations, based on an affidavit quoted within the ruling.
Crichton, a Thunder Bay performer and mom of 4 children, mentioned it was heartbreaking to assume her youngsters might hear accusations circulating about her in school or elsewhere. It was additionally disheartening to see individuals who shared mutual pals on Fb commenting on Webster’s posts.
But, the ruling helped restore a few of her “religion in humanity,” she mentioned.
“It was good to know that somebody on the market was listening and heard us, and was capable of reduce via the entire nonsense and simply see the plain fact,” she mentioned.
“This was hate speech. It was malice. It was intentional. They knew what they had been doing. Finish of story.”
© 2025 The Canadian Press
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