Men behind ‘offensive’ Ward News face charges
Toronto couple say editor and publisher will be charged with uttering violent threats
A Toronto couple has filed a criminal complaint against the editor and publisher of Your Ward News, a controversial publication that Canada Post has been banned from delivering and that Toronto police have investigated for hate crimes.
Lisa and Warren Kinsella said a justice of the peace agreed Wednesday morning to charge editor James Sears and publisher Leroy St. Germaine with uttering threats.
Sears said in an email to the Star that he can’t comment on specifics, but called it a “mischievous, impotent complaint” and suggested the court was lacking important information.
“My legal team and I will mop the floor with the Kinsellas on our first available opportunity in court but, in the meantime, we will enjoy the free publicity that Daisy Group has once again garnered for Your Ward News!,” Sears said in the email, referring to the company run by the Kinsellas.
The Kinsellas, who have campaigned against Your Ward News, said they were concerned with an article in the current edition, in which Sears suggests his followers may decide to “bludgeon the Kinsellas to death.”
“Not only was this comment meant to intimidate and silence us from speaking out, it was also a genuine threat, I felt, against my family,” Lisa Kinsella said in a phone interview.
“What’s appeared . . . we believe has crossed the line into uttering threats and criminal territory.”
Lisa Kinsella said she originally went to police about the alleged threat on June 9 but they told her they did not have grounds to press charges.
She and her husband decided to go through the private prosecution process, which anyone can pursue if they believe they have reasonable grounds.
Warren Kinsella, a Toronto-based lawyer who has written about hate groups, says Your Ward News publishes “some of the most extreme hate (he’s) ever seen in Canada.”
Your Ward News, which describes itself as an “anti-Marxist publication,” has been called anti-Semitic, anti-Muslim, misogynistic, homophobic and neo-Nazi.
Last year, then-minister of public services and procurement Judy Foote issued an order to stop the distribution of Your Ward News via Canada Post. She called the publication “highly offensive and well outside the norm of Canadian values.”
Sears challenged the order and a hearing to review the decision began in late April.
The Kinsellas are founding mem-
“Unless you’re a straight white male, you are targeted in this publication. We believe that this is not free speech, this is hate propaganda.” LISA KINSELLA REGARDING WARD NEWS
bers of a group called Standing Together Against Mailing Prejudice (STAMP), which campaigned against home delivery of the paper, and have been a frequent target of the paper.
They say they are thrilled and relieved that the justice decided to move forward with charges.
Lisa Kinsella said they’ve been trying to get police and government action against Your Ward News for the past two years.
“Unless you’re a straight white male, you are targeted in this publication,” she said. “We believe that this is not free speech, this is hate propaganda.”