Liberal staffer condones shooting curfew-breakers
TORONTO — A federal Liberal riding association executive with a penchant for bad behaviour online would shed no tears for COVID-19 quarantine-breakers shot dead by government snipers.
Mark Elyas, who in 2018 ended up in hot water over profane Facebook rants calling for Trump supporters to lose custody of their children and be exiled to detention camps, posted on Facebook last month support for nowdiscredited comments by Philippines President Rodrigo Duterte urging police to kill citizens defying coronavirus lockdown.
“I hate Duerte (sic,) but he 100% right on this one,” Elyas wrote in response to an April 2 post by Youtuber and podcast host Kyle Orvis.
“Shoot people on sight who defy curfew (snipers can be posted anywhere about 2 kms from targets.)”
Elyas lists himself as President (Vancouver-east) of the Liberal Party of Canada, and is an administrator for the riding association’s Facebook page.
“They don’t just give you rights and freedoms back you know that?” replied Orvis, whose online content includes government conspiracies, deep state and civil freedoms.
“Your solution is to shoot innocent people, who are only wanting to live free and not be oppressed by government overreaction to a virus that is killing (unfortunately) a small percentage of people,” wrote another.
“Their stupid actions are criminal and could kill me,” Elyas replied. “That’s why I will knock a mofo out if he gets within 4 metres of me and I warn him to keep his distance.”
Governments aren’t overreacting, he said, accusing the poster of being a Russian operative.
“… people like you spreading misinformation (you probably work for Putin — you look
Russian), you should be jailed for life,” he wrote.
Duterte’s widely-reported order to murder curfew-breakers turned out to be fake news.
Speaking in Tagalog during an April 1 speech in Manila, he actually told police and soldiers to defend themselves if confronted with deadly force from protesters during relief efforts.
“Ang buhay ninyo nalagay sa alanganin, shoot them dead,” he said. Translated, that means: “If your life is in danger, shoot them dead.”
In 2018, Elyas posted a foulmouthed rant against a woman who questioned a now-deleted profane anti-trump Facebook post, telling her to “go f–k yourself, you racist Trump supporter.”
When another accused Elyas of being a bigot, Elyas agreed that he was, adding the Trump supporters “be rounded up and placed in camps away from public view” and “their kids should be taken away from them for child abuse.”
Requests for comment from Elyas weren’t returned by press time.