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Aspiring Provincial Parliamentary candidate for the Newmarket-Aurora Progressive Conservatives, Maddie Di Muccio, today deleted tweets claiming I am a paedophile.

Di Muccio liked tweets from the troll, TruckMafk TMTM. He has also removed a lengthy series of tweets alleging my paedophilia.

Derek HighwayMonitor, who, like Di Muccio, re-tweeted baseless allegations of paedophilia has also deep-cleansed his Twitter account.

I am still waiting to hear from Patrick Brown MPP, the Leader of the Progressive Conservative Party of Ontario, and from Derek Murray, the President of the Newmarket-Aurora PC Riding Association.

Yesterday I asked them to take whatever steps they considered appropriate to get Di Muccio to remove the Tweets. I also asked them to secure an apology from Di Muccio. In my letters to Mr Brown and Mr Murray I included screen shots of Di Muccio's smears.

Although the offending tweets and re-tweets have now been taken down - and I am grateful - the issue is not completely resolved until I get an apology from Di Muccio.

I shall post updates.

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Five days ago Maddie Di Muccio told her twitter audience she liked tweets linking me to paedophilia.

And Di Muccio's tweets are still up there in cyberspace, available to a global audience.

I have therefore written today to the Leader of the PC Party of Ontario, Patrick Brown, and to the President of the Newmarket-Aurora PC Riding Association, Derek Murray, asking them to take whatever steps they consider appropriate to ensure that Di Muccio:

  1. deletes her Tweets liking those from the troll TruckMafk claiming I am a paedophile
  2. expresses regret to Patrick Brown and Derek Murray for her actions which promoted the belief that I am a paedophile and apologise in writing to me.

In the absence of any expression of regret or an apology, I have urged Mr Brown and Mr Murray to advise Di Muccio to take her concerns about my alleged paedophilia to the police together with the facts she is relying on to support such an assertion.

Di Muccio is currently seeking the nomination to become the Progressive Conservative candidate for Newmarket-Aurora in the Provincial election in 2018.

I shall post updates in due course.

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PC wannabe MPP Maddie Di Muccio "likes" tweets that claim I am a paedophile.

Twitter tells us

'Likes are represented by a small heart. They are commonly used to show appreciation for a Tweet.'

Not long after I posted my piece on Maddie Di Muccio and her unsuccessful bid to extract $25,000 from Canada Post, the dark, fetid, unsavoury underbelly of the internet began to stir.

TruckMafk TMTM @TruckMafd sets the hare running yesterday with this tweet:

@gordon_prentice Is that pedophilia charge against you cleared up yet or is that trial still on? 

 

 

 

 

 

 

then this one

@gordon_prentice is it true that you're currently in court defending #Pedophilia charges?

followed by

@gordon_prentice can u address the rumours of #Pedophilia charges against u? Are u innocent? Did you ever mollest #children?

 

 

 

 

 

followed by

@gordon_prentice on these alleged #Pedophilia allegations, do u got any comments? If true, is there anything u'd say 2 their families?

followed by

@gordon_prentice r the rumours true that the judge may throw out your case of u raping a kid? R u still advised 2 stay away from schools?

followed by

in reply to Johnny D

TruckMafk TMTM @ TruckMafk

@horsesandbeer I also hear rumours of this sick man's pedophilia. Keep yr kids away from @Gordon_Prentice until these rumours are addressed!

Engaging with trolls

Instead of ignoring this tripe, Di Muccio chooses to engage with this troll - more than once. Her appreciation of tweets alleging paedophilia by me plumbs new depths, even for her.

And to be clear, M'Lud, I do not have a criminal record either here in Canada or in the UK. Furthermore, I have never been charged with any crime nor have I ever been investigated by the police in connection with any crime whatsoever, anywhere, in any jurisdiction. I am, M'Lud, a model citizen.  

For her part, Di Muccio has chosen to engage on social media with someone who posts baseless allegations of paedophilia and who makes crude sexist and pejorative comments about people.

If the Newmarket-Aurora Riding Association abandons all sense of decency and selects Di Muccio as their candidate in the Provincial Election in 2018 they will be telling the rest of us a great deal about the standards they have set themselves.

Fake news

They will be saying it is OK to coarsen and debase political discourse locally and it is OK to promote "fake news".

The leaflet on the right was circulated by Canada Post on behalf of its client, the newspaper Snap'd, in the run up to the October 2014 Newmarket municipal election which saw Di Muccio losing her Ward 6 seat to Kelly Broome. We do not yet know who was responsible for the text.

But we do know Maddie Di Muccio believes it contains

"vile and disgusting smears".

As it happens, Matilde Barbara Di Muccio will be returning to the Newmarket Small Claims Court on Friday 10 February 2017. This time, she is seeking $5,000 in damages from Regional Councillor John Taylor who is accused of causing her

"reputational damage".

In the extensive list of things she claims Taylor has allegedly done to her I see the words

"injurious falsehoods"

I am left wondering if the promotion of unfounded allegations of paedophilia by Di Muccio against me counts as an injurious falsehood?

If it doesn't, M'Lud, then perhaps it should.

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The oldest house in Newmarket, dating from 1811, is in a truly dire state.
 
So it is fortunate we have a heritage watchdog to act as our eyes and ears when old buildings are in danger of falling down. At its meeting last November, the Town's Heritage Newmarket Advisory Committee discussed the derelict state of Bogart House and decided photos should be taken of the decaying structure. These would then be passed to planning staff
 
"in order to commence a formal legal process to require remediation of the house."
 
This is excellent news. But why has it take so long to act? What has the Ward Councillor been doing other than twiddling his thumbs?   
 
I took this photograph on 27 August 2015 but, even so, it doesn't tell the whole story. The back of the house was completely open to the elements.
 
A few days later (on 1 September 2015) in a wide-ranging blog about the venerable Dave Kerwin I mentioned the calamitous condition of Bogart House and urged action.
 
Its future was tied to a major development in Kerwin's ward. I wrote:

"The proposed development is next door to the wooded Bogart Trail with its attractive private lake. John Bogart House, the oldest house in Newmarket, is inconveniently situated on land the developer wants for other uses. So it is to be moved to a new location a short distance away.
 
The clapperboard house was constructed in 1811 and has been designated for its historical and architectural significance. John Bogart was a Quaker pioneer from Pennsylvania, who had a saw mill on the nearby creek. It is one of the first two storey residential buildings constructed north of Toronto. To me, this is quite a big deal.
 
Dave Kerwin might have told us the old house is open to the elements at the back with a non existent window letting in rain, snow and goodness knows what else. This bit of Newmarket history needs a quick repair job asap."
 
Earlier, on 15 June 2015, I had written to the Town expressing concern about "demolition by neglect". I was told the Town was looking at preparing a Heritage Building Standards By-law
 
"that will prescribe a minimum standard for the maintenance of the heritage attributes for the property both in a Heritage District or individually designated".
 
A year later, I followed this up asking what progress had been made. I was told Legislative Services had scheduled an update to the Town Wide Property Standards By-law on their work plan but due to other priorities work had not started (that was on 9 August 2016).
 
I am told many issues can be addressed under the current property standards by-law.
 
But, self evidently, some issues cannot be addressed.
 
Otherwise why was Bogart House allowed to deteriorate into its present lamentable condition?
 
If our by-laws aren't working we need to change them and instill new vigour into those charged with enforcing them.
 
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A claim by Maddie Di Muccio and her husband John Blommestyn for $25,000 in damages from Canada Post was last week thrown out by Newmarket Small Claims Court Judge Elliott Goldstein.

The litigious pair demanded the cash from Canada Post because of its role in distributing election flyers in 2014, penned by a spoof Newmarket Town Hall Watch, which they say are defamatory.

Di Muccio and Blommestyn both filed separate claims concerning the distribution of flyers in Ward 6 (where she was the candidate) and Ward 7 (where he was standing).

They allege wrongdoing by Snap'd Chief Executive, Paul Dutton, and Snap'd employee and current Ward 6 councillor, Kelly Broome.  (Photo shows Paul Dutton on right collecting his "entrepreneur of the year award 2012". Also shown Steve Hinder.)

Conspiracy

Di Muccio and her husband John Blommestyn suggest there was a conspiracy between Broome and Dutton to circulate flyers that would damage them both in the eyes of the voters.

As is generally the case with their endless bouts of litigation, Di Muccio and Blommestyn represented themselves. They always paint themselves as victims - of the system, of circumstances and of the malevolent.

After hearing all the facts, on 11 January 2017, Deputy Judge Goldstein made an order

"dismissing the claim (on consent)".

This simply means the Judge found in favour of the Defendant (Canada Post) and is to be taken as a final judgement. Di Muccio and Blommestyn cannot resurrect the issue later.

Unredacted

But, in the course of the hearings, Di Muccio and Blommestyn got what they wanted. The Court ordered Canada Post to produce a partially unredacted invoice to the Plaintiff (Blommestyn) showing the name of the customer; the name of the person/entity the mailing was done on behalf of and the method of payment.

This revealed the subterfuge.

Di Muccio and Blommestyn believe they have nailed Snap'd which, they say, is culpable for arranging the distribution of anonymous material during the 2014 municipal election campaign which was explicitly designed to damage them.

So, what should happen next?

Paul Dutton and Kelly Broome will, at some stage, have to respond to Di Muccio's allegations.

I don't think it is possible for them to pretend that nothing has happened.

Cloak and Dagger

Personally, I have never done my politics in a cloak and dagger way. It is wholly counter-productive. Much better to be up-front. I've never played both sides as is so often the case with politicians here in Newmarket.

If you think someone is a useless candidate (and I think Maddie Di Muccio would be a dose of anthrax to the PCs locally) then why not say so?

But some people prefer to operate in the shadows. The real Newmarket Town Hall Watch, who revels in her notoriety and anonymity, told us in February 2014:

"By remaining unnamed I give more focus to my words."

That sounds like a defence Paul Dutton could use.

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