Montreal Deputy Mayor Sue Montgomery Trampled On My Charter Rights And Freedoms Today

This is my response to the written transcript of what Sue Montgomery told Carol Off on CBC Radio's 'As It Happens' a couple of weeks ago now.

It is a work in progress and has some formatting problems that need to be corrected.

Harassment of mayor

Guest: Sue Montgomery

JD: Yesterday, a Montreal judge ruled that Sue Montgomery has been harassed. But Judge Flavia Longo decided that the harassment wasn't criminal -- because the Crown had failed to prove that Ms. Montgomery was experiencing fear. Sue Montgomery is the Mayor of the Montreal borough of Cote-des-Neiges Notre-Dame-de-Grace. Before that, she was a criminal reporter in the city. We reached Mayor Montgomery in Montreal.

LOL! I won't argue with CBC Radio's 'As It Happens' asserting that Montreal Unitarian clergy abuse cover-up enabler Sue Montgomery was "a criminal reporter" in Montreal before getting herself elected as Mayor of the Montreal borough of Cote-des-Neiges Notre-Dame-de-Grace, not to mention being appointed as Montreal mayor Valérie Plante's first Deputy Mayor.

CO: Mayor Montgomery, how did you respond to this verdict when you heard it yesterday?

SUE MONTGOMERY: Well, obviously I was very disappointed. When the judge read the verdict, well, when she read her judgment, I thought it was going towards a guilty verdict, until she got to the element of talking about how fearful I was. And then she said that my body language and my facial expression demonstrated that I wasn't fearful enough. And then she concluded by saying it is harassment, Robert Edgar has been harassing me. But is it criminal harassment? No.

How fearful was*is Sue Montgomery? During her election campaign, Montreal Unitarian clergy abuse cover-up enabler Sue Montgomery advertised herself to Montreal voters as "a tough cookie" who isn't afraid of anyone on several occasions, including within minutes of rather dubiously accusing me of "harassment" for asking all three CDN-NDG mayoralty candidates a legitimate question about SPVM police repression of my peaceful public protest against Unitarian Universalist clergy abuse etc. outside the Unitarian "Church" of Montreal.

CO: And this is over a very long period of time, some years, where this harassment was happening — that she confirms is harassment. But then in one incident that was filmed, you appear to not be afraid of him. You're standing close to him, and not responding in your face or your body language, according to the judge, that showed fright. Can you describe what that incident was?

The videos which made it abundantly clear to Québec Court judge Flavia Longo that Sue Montgomery is not afraid of me may be viewed in The Emerson Avenger blog post titled:

Montreal Deputy Mayor Sue Montgomery Trampled On My Charter Rights And Freedoms Today

Sue Montgomery can be seeing approaching me very determinedly, without the slightest hesitation at all, about 15 minutes into this "body cam" video that was filmed during my protest of Sunday March 18, 2018.

Sue Montgomery shows no fear of me whatsoever throughout the video, and even goes out of her way to try to provoke me into violating conditions not to communicate with her by repeatedly kicking and throwing my picket signs protesting against Unitarian Universalist clergy abuse etc. into the street.

SM: Well Robert Edgar, he was expelled from the Unitarian Church in 1998. And since that day, he has protested every Sunday. So when he was charged with criminal harassment towards me, one of the conditions was he wasn't supposed to be at the church or within 300 meters of me. So when I showed up that Sunday, he was there. Unbeknownst to me, that condition not to be at the church had been lifted. I had not been informed of that. So I was quite disconcerted to see him there with his regular signs. And so I called the police. And I you know out of anger and frustration, and I think anyone would understand the exasperation I would feel after 20 years of this. I pushed his signs onto the street. He filmed the whole thing as he is want to do. He always films me wherever I am. So he had that as evidence. And she felt that because I was not leaving the scene or acting as a good victim by running away or crying or I mean she didn't specify what a good victim would have done in that situation. But she claimed that my behavior wasn't indicative of being afraid of him.

This is inaccurate, and a deflection. Sue Montgomery tries to make it appear that my protest is only against being expelled from the Unitarian "Church" of Montreal. That is misinformation aka "spin". My protest began in May of 1998, and it was initially against non-sexual clergy abuse that I was subjected to by Rev. Ray Drennan, which was all but officially approved of by the leadership of the Unitarian "Church" of Montreal and the Unitarian Universalist Association (UUA) in Boston. I soon added UU clergy sexual misconduct to the issues that I was protesting against because I had been informed by Rev. Deborah Pope-Lance, and other advocates for victims of UU clergy abuse, that many women had had their clergy sexual misconduct complaints ignored and-or dismissed by the UUA and its aptly named Ministerial Fellowship Committee; and many had been completely silenced thanks to being cajoled or coerced into signing confidentiality agreements aka non-disclosure agreements.

Sue Montgomery did not have conditions saying that I could not be within 300 meters of her on Sunday March 18th, 2018, and my conditions had been reduced to allow me to resume my protest outside the Unitarian "Church" of Montreal. The excessive and unjustified 300 meter perimeter around Sue Montgomery was only added on September 6th of 2018 after I was arrested for alleged breach of conditions, and additional criminal harassment, for asking questions at Montreal city council meetings, just days before I was supposed to go to trial on the original charge.

I find it very hard to believe that such a high-profile "victim" would not have been informed by the police and-or Crown prosecutors that my release conditions had been reduced almost a month earlier on February 19th. As for the "exasperation" that Sue Montgomery claims to feel after "20 years of this", we are talking about 20 years of peaceful public protest against Unitarian Universalist clergy abuse which includes, but is by no means limited to, what the UUA's Canadian attorney described as "such despicable crimes as pedophilia and rape" in the cease and desist demand letter he had me served with in which he falsely accused me of the archaic criminal act of "blasphemous libel' for allegedly making "unfounded and vicious allegations to the effect that ministers of the Association engage in such despicable crimes as pedophilia and rape". Why is #BeenRapedNEVERreported hashtag co-founder Sue Montgomery expressing "exasperation" at a protest against "such despicable crimes as pedophilia and rape" committed by Unitarian Universalist clergy, to say nothing of Unitarian Universalist Religious Educators etc., and the cover-up and denial of such sex crimes by her "religion"?

I film "the whole thing", as I am wont to do, for multiple reasons, but the main reason that I film as much of my church protest as possible is to protect myself from false accusations brought against me by Montreal Unitarians.  I have been falsely accused of assault at least three times by Unitarian Universalist women seeking to punish me for protesting and to suppress my protest. In January of 2014 SPVM police officers were told that I had assaulted a Montreal Unitarian woman when the exact opposite had happened. Thankfully I had video evidence of Margo Ellis's assault on me, but when I tried to file assault charges against Margo Ellis the SPVM did not act on them, nor did they charge Margo Ellis or her "eye-witness" accomplice(s) for the public mischief of making a false report to the police. . .

I also keep my camera running to record any assaults on me, and other harassment and interference in my protest, by Montreal Unitarians, and to record any interactions with the police. In that I am pretty much obliged to keep a video camera filming throughout my protests I do a narration aka running commentary on what is happening and what the protest is about.

CO: Why did he go after you in the first place? I mean the story goes back to 20 years ago, you are a reporter for the Montreal Gazette. He approached you, wanted you to investigate something, you found no basis to do a story about. That began then and then carries on to that to your time in politics. Why does he pursue you?

I publicly criticize Montreal Unitarian clergy abuse enabler and "criminal reporter" Sue Montgomery, because she has been "running interference" for the Unitarian "Church" of Montreal, and the larger Unitarian Universalist "religion", for well over a decade. Sue Montgomery has not only repeatedly refused to report eminently newsworthy stories about Unitarian Universalist clergy abuse etc. that have plenty of basis to do a story about, but she has actively involved herself in the abusive misuse of the SPVM police force, and the criminal justice system, to suppress my peaceful public protest against U*U clergy abuse outside the UCM. When Sue Montgomery entered politics I protested in an effort to ensure that she would not be elected so that she could not abuse her power as a politician to help the Unitarian Universalist "church" conceal its clergy abuse problem from the public. Unfortunately I was not successful in trying to warn the public of Sue Montgomery's serious ethical failings and her proclivity to abuse her power and influence.

SM: Well, he wanted me to write about the fact he was expelled from the Unitarian Church. I looked into it. I found that the church had done its due diligence, and had gone through all kinds of things to help Mr. Edgar before taking this step to expel him. So I decided there wasn't a story. He would not take no for an answer, and kept asking me to write about it, despite my journalistic right to decide whether or not something is a story. And then in 2014, I created the hashtag #beenrapedneverreported, which created this whole #MeToo movement. And you know people coming forward about their their rape experiences. He then started doing riffs on that, claiming that I was complicit in the cover up of sexual abuse at the Unitarian Church. So a, there has been no such sexual abuse. I've looked into it. I've even asked him like if you are a victim then go to the police. He's just saying I'm covering it up. And if anyone knows my track record as a journalist, that's the last thing I would have done. I've written all kinds of stories about sexual abuse. And then when I decided to run in politics, he showed up at my debates, he sort of followed me around during my campaign filming me. And at one debate, he was sitting in the front row filming me. I asked him to stop. He would not stop. The organizers of the debate would not step in until a bunch of women in the audience stood up and said we don't feel safe. Tell him to stop. He has no right to be doing this. So now he's claiming because I'm a politician, I'm shutting down his freedom of expression, which is so far from the truth. As a public official, I understand that people have a right to criticize me, to confront me, to be angry with me. But when it goes on for 20 years with no clear grievance, to me, his sole goal is to make me uncomfortable, to disturb my life, and to upset me. And he was also charged with breaking his conditions before this trial for criminal harassment. And in that case, he was found guilty. The judge wrote a 30-page judgment clearly saying that Mr. Edgar’s sole goal was to disrupt my life.

This is exactly the kind of misinformation and "spin" that Sue Montgomery fed to her colleagues in The Gazette, and even in the larger Montreal journalistic community, to "bury the story" and try to discredit me. To the best of my recollection the first story that I ever asked Sue Montgomery to report on was my arrest for allegedly violating section 176.3 of the Canadian Criminal Code on the first Sunday of December 2000. I called The Gazette's city desk, and told the person on the other end of the phone line that I had been arrested for alleged "public nuisance", within hours of my arrest. I did not know the exact charge when I called The Gazette. The woman at the City Desk who I spoke with repeatedly insisted that my arrest was "not newsworthy". I found this to be quite bizarre, so I asked her name, she said "Sue Montgomery". At the time I had no idea that Sue Montgomery had joined the Unitarian Church of Montreal in 2000. I only found that out within the last few months, as a result of the trials for alleged criminal harassment. Can you say "conflict of interest" and "running interference"?

For the record, the Montreal Mirror, The Suburban, The Monitor, CJAD and CTV all reported on that false arrest, and-or my previous expulsion from the Unitarian Church of Montreal. It was certainly newsworthy to them, but not to newly minted Montreal Unitarian Sue Montgomery. Quelle surprise.  . . I will add that two other The Gazette journalists became members of the UCM in later years, including The Gazette's religion columnist Harvey Shepherd, and words columnist Mark Abley. A retired Gazette staffer named Nancy Lorimer was-is a long time member of the Unitarian "Church" of Montreal. Thunder Bay and Guelph newspaper publisher, and self-appointed "Citizens Police Officer", Peter Kohl was also a member for a while. Funny how The Gazette kept things under wraps for the better part of two decades until Sue Montgomery's ever so newsworthy false criminal harassment accusation against me. . .

Sue's claim that, "I found that the church had done its due diligence, and had gone through all kinds of things to help Mr. Edgar before taking this step to expel him." is a lie. My first call to her was about my arrest, not about my expulsion which occurred more than a year earlier. In any case, as in most cases of clergy misconduct complaints, the church most certainly had not done any due diligence, nor had it "gone through all kinds of things to help (me)" before taking this step to expel me. Au contraire. . . The church backed Rev. Ray Drennan to the hilt and sought to silence me. Sue Montgomery is lying to make the church look good, and me look bad. Happens all the time when people complain about clergy misconduct aka clergy abuse.

It is a brazen lie for Sue Montgomery to assert that "there has been no such sexual abuse. I've looked into it. I've even asked him like if you are a victim then go to the police." I have never claimed to be a victim of clergy sexual abuse myself. I have always made it clear that the abuse by Rev. Ray Drennan was verbal abuse, psychological abuse, and abuse of power etc. On December 6th, 2012, I had a chance encounter with Sue Montgomery as I was documenting a vigil in front of Montreal's Palais de Justice on International Day Against Violence Against Women. Knowing Sue Montgomery had repeatedly refused to responsibly report newsworthy stories arising out of my church protest etc., and knowing also that 4-5 years earlier she had participated in an abusive misuse of the SPVM etc. to force an end to my church protest for one full year by claiming to fear for her safety in a deposition to the police (along with Rev. Diane Rollert and a dozen or so other "less than honest" Montreal Unitarians) I decided to capture on video Sue's reaction to my asking her to report on the UUA's false blasphemous libel accusation against me which had been made six months earlier. The video may be viewed here. Judge for yourself if Sue Montgomery's dismissive response in this video does not make her "complicit in the cover up of sexual abuse at the Unitarian Church", to say nothing of the various other ways that she is most certainly complicit in the cover-up and denial of sexual abuse in the Unitarian Universalist religious community. Judge for yourself how much fear she displays. None whatsoever, just disdain and contempt.

I did not "follow" Sue Montgomery around during her municipal election campaign filming her. I held three peaceful public protests at three different election debates, and documented those protests on video. Yes, at one mayoralty debate, I was sitting in the front row filming the whole debate, which obviously included filming Sue Montgomery's participation in the debate. Sue Montgomery asked me to stop filming when I tried to document her response to a "tough question" that I had asked all three mayoralty candidates about SPVM police repression of peaceful public protest etc., not just her as an individual. I declined her request-demand because I was perfectly within my rights to film the public election event as a citizen, or indeed a "citizen journalist". Many other people were filming the debate with their cellphones etc., and mainstream media had also filmed part of it. Where does Sue Montgomery get the idea that I have "no right to be doing this"? She did not object to anyone else filming the debate, just me. . .

Sue Montgomery absolutely is shutting down my freedom of expression, with an egregious abusive misuse of the SPVM police force, and the criminal justice system, by falsely accusing me of criminal harassment to force release conditions on me that prevent me from asking any questions at city council meetings, and also prevent me from protesting against clergy abuse etc. outside the Unitarian Church of Montreal. It most certainly is not "so far from the truth" for me to accuse Sue Montgomery of trampling on my freedom of expression and other Charter rights and freedoms by falsely accusing me of criminal harassment etc.

If "As a public official, (Sue Montgomery) understand(s) that people have a right to criticize (her), to confront (her), to be angry with (her)", why does she behave in a manner that makes it very clear that she does not believe that I have those very same human rights? Is it because she does not consider me to be human?

Nothing has gone on for 20 years with no clear grievance, as Sue Montgomery falsely claims. It is a gross exaggeration for her to pretend that I have been harassing her for 20 years. It seems that she believes that my protest against clergy abuse constitutes "psychological harassment" of her. If she really cared about women who have been sexually abused she would have joined my protest years ago. Instead she has repeatedly sought to suppress it and discredit it, and is still doing so. . . I have very clearly stated what my personal grievances with Sue Montgomery as an individual are, and I very generously offered her conditional forgiveness two days after she falsely accused me of libel on December 4th, of 2014. She ignored that offer of forgiveness, and thus rejected it. It is just another lie for her to claim that I have "no clear grievance" with her.

It absolutely is not my "sole goal" to make Montreal Unitarian clergy abuse cover-up enabler Sue Montgomery "uncomfortable", to disturb her life (with no valid reason), and to "upset" her. My goal is to expose and denounce Sue Montgomery's complicity in Unitarian Universalist clergy abuse cover-up efforts so that she may face some accountability for her role in UU clergy abuse cover-up and denial, so that Montreal voters are made aware of her UNethical behaviour, and so that the MUCH bigger story of Unitarian Universalist clergy abuse cover-up and denial is made known to the North American public. That being said, Canada's criminal harassment law was never intended to protect "less than ethical" politicians from being made to feel "uncomfortable" and "upset" by legitimate public criticism of their bad behaviour.

CO: Because this law says that they have to prove that you demonstrate fear in order to have a conviction, and the judge felt you didn't meet that. Now, Mr. Edgar is saying everything I'm doing in terms of Sue Montgomery is perfectly legitimate. That's what he's quoted as saying. What does that mean for you?

Everything I'm doing in terms of Sue Montgomery IS perfectly legitimate. Do some responsible research, call me up and interview me, and you will quickly discover that everything I am saying about Sue Montgomery is very truthful and supported by various forms of evidence.

SM: Well, it's horrible. I mean I don't know from one day to the next. You know he can show up now at city council. He can come to my borough council meetings. He can continue protesting outside of the Unitarian Church. But I did get an email today from the police commander in my borough, saying that should this continue, I should come back to the police and make another report, and we will continue along those lines.

Oh dear. A vocal critic of a "less than ethical" politician can show up at city council meetings to ask that politician some "tough questions". He can come to that politician's borough council meetings to ask questions. What a terrible injustice! What a heinous crime! Only I can't actually do so yet thanks to Sue Montgomery's highly UNethical legal shenanigans that The Crown is playing along with in what former SPVM Media Relations officer Ian Lafrenière might recognize as being "ingérence politique". . .

What a terrible crime! I can continue protesting against Unitarian Universalist clergy abuse, which includes "such despicable crimes as pedophilia and rape", and the shameful cover-up and denial of "such despicable crimes", and other U*U clergy abuse, outside of the Unitarian Church of Montreal. Assuming that right does not remain suppressed by The Crown when it hands down its sentence for my alleged breach of conditions on August 5th.

How is it possible that the co-founder of the #BeenRapedNEVERreported hashtag is opposed to such a protest against Unitarian Universalist clergy abuse which includes hundreds of cases of clergy sexual misconduct committed by UUA clergy?!!

CO: Your hashtag, #beenrapedneverreported, you created that for a reason. So the fact that you do have that experience, how has that changed this man's impact on your life?

How about this meme-picket sign slogan?

SM: Well, I'm a survivor of sexual abuse and rape. And to have someone falsely telling me, and telling the world, that I am complicit in the cover up of sexual abuse is frankly it's hurtful. And it shouldn't be allowed. And I don't believe that his right to protest and to say false things about me should take precedence over my right to live without fear.

I am not falsely telling Sue Montgonery, and telling the world, that she is complicit in the cover up of sexual abuse committed by UUA clergy and Religious Educators etc. Frankly it's a readily provable fact. At minimum she is guilty of complicit silence, but it is FAR worse than that. Sue Montgomery has repeatedly helped the UU "religion" keep its clergy abuse problem under wraps, including by brazenly lying to Carol Off in this 'As It Happens interview'. . .

CO: And do you live with fear?

SM: Yes. Yes, I live with fear. I live with anger. I live with frustration. I don't know what it's going to take to make this stop. Like come on! Twenty years, 20 years. I think any reasonable person would agree that this has gone on too long, and needs to stop

The only fear that Sue Montgomery lives with is the fear that her past, and indeed ongoing. . . complicity in, indeed knowing and willful participation in, the cover up and denial of Unitarian Universalist sexual abuse will become known and believed by the Canadian public. She has no reasonable grounds to fear that I will physically harm her. She even told CJFE staffer Kevin Metcalf that she had no such fear. Canada's criminal harassment law was not designed to protect corrupt politicians, and shameless clergy abuse cover-up enablers, from feeling psychological discomfort brought on by a guilty conscience.

CO: Mayor Montgomery, I appreciate speaking with you thank you.


Does Carol Off *appreciate* that she has been bamboozled into helping Montreal Unitarian clergy abuse cover-up enabler Sue Montgomery spin her slanderous fear-mongering false narrative about me, and that she has helped Sue Montgomery to mislead the Canadian public about Unitarian Universalism's serious clergy abuse problem? Does Carol Off *appreciate* how "less than credible" Sue Montgomery's bullshit claims are? NO sexual abuse whatsoever in the Unitarian Church? Is that remotely credible?

SM: Thank you very much.

Yes, I am sure that Sue Montgomery is VERY thankful for Carol Off's and As It Happens' assistance in pulling the wool over the eyes of the Canadian public and spreading her slanderous false narrative about me.

JD: Sue Montgomery is the Mayor of the Montreal borough of Cote-des-Neiges Notre-Dame-de-Grece. We reached her in Montreal.