Gowlings Media Lawyer Mark Bantey And The Unitarian Universalist Holiday Of Chalica - What's The Connection?

How about this initial response to the arrogant and aggressive cease and desist demand letter media lawyer Mark Bantey, of Gowling Lafleur Henderson LLP, had Yours Truly served with by Montreal bailiff Hugo Doucet on the 4th Day of Chalica, as I was outside La Tulippe protesting against the fact that children have #BeenRaped by "less than perfect" Unitarian Universalists, such as U*U minister Rev. Mack Wallace Mitchell, U*U lay person Richard Buell, and U*U Sunday school teacher aka Religious Educator Steven Craig Bulleit, to name but three convicted U*U rapists, but Montreal Unitarian U*U and The Gazette's "Justice Reporter" Sue Montgomery #NeverReported the fact that the Rev. Dr. Peter Morales UUA administration attempted to intimidate me into "memory holing" blog posts about two of these U*U rapists by hiring Stikeman Elliott Barristers & Solicitors litigation lawyer Maitre Marc-André Coulombe to falsely accuse me of the archaic crime of blasphemous libel in Bill Cosby style legal bullying. . .


Re: Sue Montgomery vs. Yours Truly aka Robin Edgar




Saturday aka Saturn's Day December 6, 2014

National Day Of Remembrance and Action To End Violence Against Women

WITHOUT PREJUDICE AND NOT A WHOLE LOT OF RESPECT EITHER. . .

Dear Mr. Bantey,

Thank you SO much for hiring Montreal bailiff Hugo Doucet to so very publicly serve me with your rather questionable cease and desist demand letter dated December 4th, 2014, (Your File No. L16321352) as I was very publicly observing the 4th Day of the Unitarian Universalist holiday Chalica by providing people attending the fundraising event arising from The Gazette "Justice Reporter" Sue Montgomery's recent #BeenRapedNeverReported initiative with the opportunity to engage in a free and responsible search for the Truth and meaning of my picket sign slogans exposing the Unitarian Universalist Association's attempted misuse of Canada's archaic blasphemy law in Bill Cosby style legal bullying that was quite obviously intended to intimidate me into "memory holing" The Emerson Avenger blog posts about Unitarian Universalists who not only "engage in such despicable crimes as pedophilia and rape", but have even been convicted of committing "such despicable crimes", and protesting against the fact that both Sue Montgomery and The Gazette #NeverReported this newsworthy story about the UUA's immoral and unethical misuse of Canadian blasphemy law to try to cover-up and deny the fact that children have #BeenRaped by Unitarian Universalist clergy, to say nothing of UU Sunday school teachers and lay people.

As a non-U*U you may be unfamiliar with Chalica, but it is essentially a U*U cultural appropriation of Chanukkah and Kwanzaa that is a week-long celebration of the Seven Purported Principles of the tiny, declining, fringe religion known as Unitarian*Universalism aka The U*U Movement which begins on the first Monday in December. Last Thursday aka Thor's Day was dedicated to celebrating the 4th Principle of Unitarian Universalism which calls upon Unitarian*Universalists aka U*Us to affirm and promote "a free and responsible search for Truth and meaning." I can't think of a better day for Yours Truly to be served with a highly questionable cease and desist demand letter that provides me and The Court Of Public Opinion, to say nothing of a court of law. . . with a wonderful opportunity to engage in a genuinely free and genuinely responsible search for the Truth and meaning of the questionable accusations made in it, or glaring dearth thereof. . .

Can you?

One sentence in particular in your questionable cease and desist demand letter that more than a little bit questionably accuses me of making defamatory statements about your client Sue Montgomery practically leaps off the page. After listing 4 examples of what you claim to be defamatory statements about The Gazette's "Justice Reporter" Ms. Sue Montgomery you quite authoritatively, but more than a little bit questionably, I even dare to say brazenly. . . assert:

"You are well aware that these libellous statements have no basis in fact."

I would appreciate it very much if you would deign to explain to me how you quite mistakenly believe that you are capable of reading my mind Mr. Bantey. Do you have a foggy and cracked crystal ball sitting on your desk at Gowling Lafleur Henderson LLP's offices that you believe allows you to probe people's minds? Do you provide work to self-proclaimed psychics aka clairvoyants who have bamboozled you into believing that they can read people's minds prior to your drafting of dubious cease and desist demand letters and hiring bailiffs to serve them to people? Do you believe that you are in contact with highly advanced space aliens who have convinced you that they have telepathic mind-reading abilities? Do you believe that the omniscient and omnipresent Creator of the Universe aka God sent you an angel with a golden scroll revealing my innermost thoughts to you?

I regret to have to inform you that if you *really* believe any of the aforementioned hypothetical scenarios you are badly mistaken, because I can assure you that I am anything but "well aware" that my allegedly defamatory statements about Sue Montgomery are "libellous statements
" that "have no basis in fact". Au contraire, I firmly believe that the four statements that you have listed, as well as various other similar statements about your client Sue Montgomery that you have not yet listed, are very Truthful and have plenty of basis in fact. I dare say that your brazen assertion that I am "well aware" that my allegedly "libellous statements" about your client Sue Montgomery "have no basis in fact" itself has no basis in fact. In my opinion (it) is a delusion aka self-deception aka Ignus FatU*Us if you *really* do believe it, or just puffed-up legalistic bullshit aka a Big Fat U*U Lie if you do not *really* believe what you ass*erted above.

We therefore put *you* on notice that we most certainly are NOT "
well aware that these (allegedly) libellous statements have no basis in fact." In fact we inform you that not only do our statements have considerable basis in fact, but we can in fact even provide evidence of their basis in fact. We also put you on notice that, until such a time as you provide us with some convincing evidence that our statements actually are defamatory or libellous aka libelous, we have NO intention whatsoever of removing our very Truthful statements about your client Sue Montgomery from social media "immediately" or otherwise. Au contraire, we aspire and will endeavor to have them published and*or broadcast in mainstream media.

That being said, in light of the fact that today is the 6th Day of Chalica, which is dedicated to celebrating U*Uism's 6th Principle of ostensibly striving for "the goal of world community
with peace, liberty, and justice for all", even if U*Us believe that goal to be, like your highly questionable cease and desist demand letter. . . "extravagant in its hopefulness and improbable in its prospects", I will generously extent to you and your client the following peace offering which I had intended to offer to Sue Montgomery even before she saw fit to hire you to falsely accuse me of defamation and libel. If you and Sue Montgomery formally withdraw the highly questionable accusations that you have brought against me in your cease and desist demand letter, and properly and publicly apologize to me for bringing them against me; and if Sue Montgomery acknowledges that I actually do have what a lawyer might call "reasonable grounds" for making "such statements" about her, and also admits to her complicit silence re. the UUA's immoral and unethical attempted misuse of Canadian blasphemy law to hide the fact that children have #BeenRaped by Unitarian Universalists such as Rev. Mack Wallace Mitchell, Richard Buell, and Steven Craig Bulleit to name but 3 such U*U rapists that (to date) she #NeverReported in The Gazette, nor to my knowledge ever spoke out against in any way, and if Sue Montgomery acknowledges her direct involvement in some of the Unitarian Church of Montreal's attempts to suppress my ongoing peaceful public protest in front of said "church", and also agrees to research and write a series of genuinely fair and balanced news reports about UU clergy abuse and UU cover-up and denial thereof that will be published in The Gazette starting later this month, I will forgive Sue Montgomery's past sins of commission and sins of omission and provide her with a clean slate for 2015.

It is my firm belief that if in her capacity as the Montreal Gazette's "Justice Reporter" Sue Montgomery had responsibly reported the newsworthy story that I brought to her attention exactly two years ago to the day. . . on
National Day Of Remembrance and Action To End Violence Against Women 2012, as may be verified in this YouTube video that your client wants to have "memory holed" -

Sue Montgomery So-Called "Justice Reporter" For The Gazette Dismisses UUA Perversion Of Justice


that UUA Moderator Jim Key would not have dared to stand up in front of thousands of Unitarian*Universalists during this year's UUA General Assembly and brazenly lie about the sexual abuse of children by UUA clergy in asserting -

"
There were no incidents of abuse of children or elders in my investigations."

in what was ostensibly a second UUA "official apology" to victims of UU clergy sexual misconduct. The fact of the matter is that children have #BeenRaped by Unitarian Universalists, such as the three men that I have named in this letter, and the UUA has attemped to cover-up and deny these rapes, as well as other clergy sexual abuse of both adults and children, by falsely accusing me of the criminal act of blasphemous libel, but Sue Montgomery and other employees of The Gazette #NeverReported this newsworthy story, even though I asked on several different occasions, including earlier this year. I am telling the Truth about the fact that both Sue Montgomery and The Gazette #NeverReported that children have #BeenRaped by Unitarian Universalists and the UUA tried to conceal this by falsely accusing me of blasphemous libel. I am telling the Truth about other aspects of Sue Montgomery's involvement in attempted suppression of my whistleblowing and peaceful public protest against ALL forms of UU clergy abuse, both clergy sexual misconduct and non-sexual misconduct. If Sue Montgomery wants (me) to be less critical of her behavior she needs to acknowledge the truthfulness of my criticism and change her behavior so that it is much more in alignment with the claimed goals of her #BeenRapedNeverReported campaign.

As they say, #NoJusticeNoPeace, but if The Gazette's "Justice Reporter" Sue Montgomery comes to her senses and finally decides that she is ready, willing, and able to finally practice genuine justice, equity and compassion in her human relations with me, as per Unitarian Universalism's 2nd Principle,
rather than making a mockery of this and other U*U principles and ideals, such as by having me served with your "less than honest" cease and desist demand letter. . . I will forgive her past sins of omission and sins of commission and assist her in researching and writing a series of The Gazette news reports about Unitarian Univeralist clergy abuse which includes, but is by no means limited to, what Stikeman Elliott Barristers & Solicitors litigation lawyer Maitre Marc-André Coulombe quite justifiably describes as "such despicable crimes as pedophilia and rape."

Please do see to it that both you and your client DO govern yourselves accordingly.

Yours Truly,


Robin Edgar


Comments

Anonymous said…
why do you care so much about this UU stuff? Who cares about UUs. They are really not on the radar.
Robin Edgar said…
Are you *quite* sure that you don't mean, "UUe are really not on the radar." Anonymous?

In any case, I expect the fact that Unitarian Universalism aka The U*U Movement aka The Tiny Declining Fringe Religion™ is "not on the radar" with much of the Canadian and American public has a lot to do with how immoral and hypocritical U*Us have managed to quite successfully sweep hundreds of cases of U*U clergy sexual misconduct aka U*U clergy abuse under the proverbial carpet for decades now. . .
Anonymous said…
UUism really doesn't appeal to a lot of people. It's a tiny and relatively newfangled religion, if you can really call it a religion. It also doesn't have the cultural place of larger, older religions (e.g., Judaism, Catholicism). Most people don't know it exists. Issues in the UU church are of no significant public interest, which is why the Gazette isn't interested and why your modal number of comments on an article is 0.
Robin Edgar said…
"It's a tiny and relatively newfangled religion, if you can really call it a religion."

Or, as Rev. Peter Morales put it in his "stump speech" announcing his candidacy for President of the UUA, it's a "tiny, declining, fringe religion", *if* you can *really* call it a religion. . . :-)
Anonymous said…
The one thing I fail to understand out of your rants is how you believe the UUA is "covering up" sexual abuse of Mack Wallace Mitchell. He was removed from fellowship by the ministerial fellowship committee two decades ago and was arrested and imprisoned, not simply shipped off to another congregation. What's more, the case was covered by Oprah Winfrey as recent as 2005 with a quote from the MFC. Churches that cover up sexual abuse usually go to great lengths to hide that an incident ever happened. It seems to me that, if there is a cover up, it's a really bad one.
Robin Edgar said…
As you say. . .

"It seems to me that, if there is a cover up, it's a really bad one."

In falsely accusing me of the archaic criminal act of blasphemous libel in immoral, unethical, borderline criminal, and indeed "Bat Shit Crazy" Bill Cosby style legal bullying that is quite obviously an inept and ineffective attempt by the Rev. Dr. Peter Morales UUA administration to intimidate Yours Truly into taking down aka deleting aka memory holing blog posts about convicted UU rapists Rev. Mack W. Mitchell and Richard Buell, the UUA FAILed miserably in its cynical efforts to censor and suppress my online information about Unitarian Universalists who are clearly guilty of engaging in what the UUA's Canadian attorney, Stikeman Elliott Barristers & Solicitors litigation lawyer Maitre Marc André Coulombe, describes as "such despicable crimes as pedophilia and rape." Not only are my blog posts about Rev. Mack Wallace Mitchell and Peacebang's First Parish Norwell parishioner Richard Buell ( to say nothing of other convicted UU pedophiles and*or rapists ) by no means "unfounded and vicious", as Maitre Coulombe falsely asserts in his arrogant and aggressive cease and desist demand letter that I was served with in June 2012, but they would not constitute the criminal act of blasphemous libel even if they were "unfounded". The only circumstance under which blog posts critical of U*U pedophiles and rapists could constitute blasphemous libel against The U*U Movement aka Unitarian Universalism is if "such despicable crimes as pedophilia and rape" were held to be sacred or holy by The U*U Movement aka UUism. Doh!

That being said, newspaper reports about the Rev. Mack Mitchell case indicate that there was an attempted cover-up at the time that his rape of teenage Tibetan refugees came to light as a result of one of them escaping his clutches and informing members of his parish about the rapes. The UUA and*or the parish(es) in question attempted to persuade Rev. Mack Mitchell's rape victims to sign confidentiality agreements, but this UU cover-up attempt was effectively sabotaged when some of the church members who had been told about the rapes decide that the best thing to do was to inform the police about the victims' allegations of rape. Your sanitized version of events is the misleading "narrative" that the UUA puts forward in its damage control efforts. The real Truth about what happened does not reflect well on either the UUA, or the UU parish(es) involved. Ditto for the Richard Buell case.

Top level UUA leadership continues to shamefully mislead not only Unitarian Universalists, but the greater American public, in brazenly lying about UU clergy sexual misconduct in general, and UU clergy sexual abuse of children in particular. Just eleven months ago, on Thursday June 27th of 2014, UUA Moderator Jim Key told brazen bald-faced lies about UU clergy misconduct, and UU clergy sexual abuse of children, in delivering what was supposed to be a second UUA "official apology" to victims of UU clergy sexual misconduct in his first Moderator's Report to a UUA GA.

Read this and weep for THE "tiny, declining, fringe religion". . .

http://emersonavenger.blogspot.ca/2014/07/did-uua-moderator-jim-key-tell-bald.html
Anonymous said…
"newspaper reports about the Rev. Mack Mitchell case indicate that there was an attempted cover-up at the time that his rape of teenage Tibetan refugees came to light as a result of one of them escaping his clutches and informing members of his parish about the rapes. The UUA and*or the parish(es) in question attempted to persuade Rev. Mack Mitchell's rape victims to sign confidentiality agreements, but this UU cover-up attempt was effectively sabotaged when some of the church members who had been told about the rapes decide that the best thing to do was to inform the police about the victims' allegations of rape."

Come on, you can do better than that. Unless the newspaper says that the UUA or the church participated in a cover up, all you're really reporting is hear-say and unsubstantiated rumor, which won't convince anyone. Newspapers are notoriously unreliable on details, especially in the early days of investigations (just ask all the people who were falsely accused of being Boston Marathon bombing suspects). The very fact that it was, even by your account, members of the congregation who turned him into the police suggests something went very right in this situation.

Even more, you're accusing the UUA of engaging in a cover-up two decades after the fact involving a case that was widely publicized and gained the attention of Oprah Winfrey who, for a time, was one of the most influential journalists in America. That'd be like accusing, say, Yoko Ono of covering up John Lennon's death, or the United States of covering up the Watergate scandal. You can't cover-up something that's widely reported and for which the facts are readily available. You can accuse them of white-washing the situation, but that's not the same as a cover-up, which implies that the facts are being hidden. They're not. I found them by a simple Google search.
Robin Edgar said…
There is NO question that the Rev. Dr. Peter Morales UUA administration hired Stikeman Elliott Barristers & Solicitors litigation lawyer Maitre Marc-André Coulombe to falsely accuse me of the archaic criminal act of blasphemous libel on the unfounded aka false basis that I had allegedly made "unfounded and vicious allegations to the effect that ministers of the Association engage in such despicable crimes as pedophilia and rape" in order to intimidate me into taking down aka deleting aka memory holing The Emerson Avenger blog posts that told the Truth about UU rapist Rev. Mack W. Mitchell, and UU pedophile rapist Richard Buell. The UUA quite evidently wanted my blog posts about these two convicted UU sex offenders to vanish into thin cyberspace so that they could not be read by anyone. Additionally, the UUA's Bill Cosby style legal bullying took the form of what is know as a cease and desist demand letter, so the UUA was not only seeking to initimidate me into removing truthful blog posts about Rev. Mack Mitchell and Richard Buell, but also sought to intimidate me into not creating any new blog posts about these two UU rapists or any other UU rapists. As you said, the UUA's inept cover-up attempt is
"a really bad one."

It was, and still is. . . incredibly foolish aka "Bat Shit Crazy" for the UUA to try and intimidate me into removing blog posts about Rev. Mack Wallace Mitchell and Rev. Dr. Victoria Weinstein's First Parish Norwell parishioner Richard Buell when both of these U*Us sex offenders were actually convicted of committing "such despicable crimes as pedophilia and rape", but I can well understand why the UUA wanted my blog posts to be memory holed. My blog posts identify Rev. Mack Mitchell and Richard Buell as Unitarian Universalists whereas the Oprah show did not identify Rev. Mack Mitchell as a UU, nor did any of the newspaper reports about Richard Buell. Besides being incredibly foolish and indeed "Bat Shit Crazy", this Bill Cosby style legal bullying makes a total mockery of most if not all of UUism's Seven Principles, especially the 2nd and 4th Principles, and completely and utterly betrays the long Unitarian*Universalist aka U*U tradition of strongly opposing blasphemy laws.

The newspaper report that spoke about how a few members of Rev. Mack Mitchell's UU congregation(s) made it impossible for the UUA and*or UU congregation to cover-up and hide Rev. Mack Mitchell's sex crimes, by having his victims sign confidentiality agreements, was actually one of the later news reports, not an early one, and it was largely about how the few members of Rev. Mack Mitchell's UU "church" who did in fact "do the right thing", as opposed to the UUA and*or local church leadership who tried to hide his sex crimes under a veil of "confidentiality", were ostracized and shunned by many if not most of their fellow UU congregants. I have been meaning to do a blog post about that aspect of the Rev. Mack Mitchell case for some time now, thanks for giving me the push to do it sooner rather than later. . .
Robin Edgar said…
"Even more, you're accusing the UUA of engaging in a cover-up two decades after the fact involving a case that was widely publicized and gained the attention of Oprah Winfrey who, for a time, was one of the most influential journalists in America."

To the best of my knowledge, the Oprah Winfrey report did not identify which religious denomination Rev. Mack Mitchell belonged to, but this inept and foolish UUA attempt to cover-up and hide the readily verifiable Truth about Rev. Mack Mitchell, to say nothing of Richard Buell and other UU pedophiles and rapists, is one of the reasons why I describe it as "Bat Shit Crazy". Sadly, the UUA clearly IS guilty of engaging in an inept and ineffective attempted cover-up aka concealment of these two cases of rape "two decades after the fact". Don't tell me, "You can't cover-up something that's widely reported and for which the facts are readily available." Tell UUA President Rev. Dr. Peter Morales, "retired" UUA Executive Vice President Kathleen "Kay" Montgomery, ALL other UU clergy, UUA staff, and lay leaders implicated in this Bill Cosby style legal bullying, and last but not least. . . the UUA's Canadian attorney Stikeman Elliott Barristers & Solicitors litigation lawyer Maitre Marc-André Coulombe.

Now how about trying to rationalize and play down the DIM Thinking bald-faced lies about UU clergy sexual abuse that UUA Moderator Jim Key brazenly fed to thousands of Unitarian Universalists, and indeed ALL U*Us, in his sorry excuse for an apology that he delivered to UU clergy sexual misconduct in the middle of his 1st Moderator's Report to a UUA GA last year. Let's see how well you do trying to pretend that those lies are not part and parcel of past and ongoing UUA cover-up and denial of UU clergy sexual abuse.
Anonymous said…
Robin, you give me a smoking gun that there's a cover-up, I'll be the first to declare the UUA was wrong for its approach. You've got to appreciate skepticism towards your claims considering that, for years, this blog was mostly about your relationship with Ray Drennan and now is almost entirely about these past cases. I'm not out to commit ad hominems so, no matter what I think of the former, you provide me a smoking gun of the latter that's not based on interpretations and rumors and I'll run with it.
Robin Edgar said…
I never at any time said that the UUA's attempted cover-up aka concealment and denial of UU clergy sexual misconduct is a *successful* one ever so Anonymous U*U. The proverbial "smoking gun" was, and still is, aimed directly at the UUA's clay feet on Friday June 1st, 2012.

See: http://emersonavenger.blogspot.ca/2012/06/uua-unitarian-universalist-association.html

And: http://emersonavenger.blogspot.ca/2013/01/stikeman-elliott-litigation-lawyer.html

What words or phrases would *you* use to describe the UUA's immoral, unethical, bordeline criminal, and yes. . . BAT SHIT CRAZY Bill Cosby style legal bullying?
Robin Edgar said…
Watch this U*UTube video of my side of a long telephone conversation that I had with UUA Moderator Jim Key in early September 2013 to see and hear my discussion with him about the UUA's false blasphemous libel accusation against me (starting at 8:15 in) and then ask yourself how Jim Key could not only do absolutely nothing to ensure that the UUA formally withdraws its false blasphemous libel accusation and apologize for it, but even go so far as too falsely claim that "NO children" were abused by UU ministers in the "official apology" that he delivered to victims of UU clergy sexual misconduct less than a year later in his first Moderator's Report to a UUA GA.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?t=514&v=OCERzw6ji_k
Robin Edgar said…
I gave you two smoking guns that show that top-level UUA leaders have outright lied to conceal & thus cover-up "such despicable crimes as pedophilia and rape" committed by "certain Unitarian Universalist ministers". There have been other cover-up attempts in the past. So when will you publicly declare the UUA was wrong for its approach?