Thread by @elisahategan

THE LAWYER NEXT DOOR🧵

The first time I saw Caryma, standing in the sunlit doorway of that Court of Appeal courtroom, I saw hope – the hope of vindication & friendship.

A year later, I found myself used & discarded by a lawyer who profited from my work & weaponized police to keep me quiet.

Caryma and I became Twitter friends shortly after her public scandal involving Chris Sky in July 2021. She reached out to me, wanting dirt on her enemies at CAHN, people I was suing in civil court. For my part, I hoped to get legal advice on appealing a civil court loss. She assured me our conversations were privileged. In September 2022 we finally met in person, when she came to a hearing to give me moral support. /2

From the moment we met IRL, we instantly connected. Soon we were texting or talking daily, often for hours. I offered to mentor her as a journalist bec she wasn’t calling herself one back then. I also offered to write articles. Within months, I'd ghostwritten several pieces & we collaborated on several more. /3

I was never paid; at first by choice, when I refused an offer of $100. For me, the friendship was about the emotional support. Due to the gag order that followed my civil court loss, I was forbidden to speak about my situation with anyone, not even a shrink. The only loophole was lawyers – and Caryma became my only friend, the only person I could talk about my stress.

I've been diagnosed with depression for two decades now, and Caryma became a lifeline. /4

She watched a video I made in 2020 titled “The Truth About White Lies”, which contained much of the evidence for my civil suit, and grew convinced I was innocent.
Thereafter, she started dangling the carrot of my redemption – promising she would vindicate me by making a podcast that would present evidence to exonerate my reputation. She promised my story would be told. I had no reason to doubt her. /5

For the past year, I did anything she wanted me to do – research, writing, giving her advice, reviewing legal docs before she sued people, accompanying her to Ottawa to document the June 9 demo, everything.

I started to sleep with my cell phone next to my pillow, in case she needed input at any point in time. She called me her “consigliere”. /6

I advised her against several troubling acts she & her boyfriend Lee planned to engage in, which in my view would impact her professionally and potentially lead to criminal charges. I started to panic nearly every time she brought up an idea. A couple of times I begged her to refrain from doing things that imo seemed astonishingly stupid, such as /7

- Her and Lee creating a disruption at a public restaurant on NYE to ruin her enemies' celebration
- Strategizing a letter-writing campaign to target an enemy's workplace
- Filming at 4 AM the property of someone suspected of posting an unflattering cartoon of her on Twitter /8

Lee repeatedly stalking a woman Caryma is currently engaged in litigation with, by filming and laying in wait outside her condo, hoping to snap photos of her.

I advised them not to post the photos & film on Twitter, reminding them that she had already complained of being stalked. /9

Fast-forward a year later: on September 11-2, 2023 we published an 85-pg article titled “The #HateGate Affair”, which I wrote in majority, but this time I was credited as co-author. Donations rolled in but I never saw a cent, even though we were supposed to share them. /10 newswire.ca/news-releases/…

I also started helping her to set up a not-for-profit organization, so we could do interfaith peacebuilding. I wanted to steer her away from the vitriol, the relentless Twitter battles, the chasing conflict for clicks. I was worried about her wellbeing and Lee's persistent need for revenge /11

Revenge was always on the menu. For Caryma it was only the "garnish", but for Lee, it always served as the main course.
Revenge didn't extend to just framing & editing protest footage to fit a narrative. It also involved strategic lawsuits that imo weaponized law & safety fears against her critics /12

Although we published #Hategate just days earlier, Caryma was already thinking of greener pastures. She felt we had outgrown Crier Media, and she mused about hitting up Maxime Bernier for cash. /13

Two weeks later, we were in North Bay, trying to track down Martin Hunka (the Nazi who got a standing ovation in Parliament). After being given $1500 by a fan who liked #Hategate (whose name I'll omit), Caryma solicited me to come, promising me approx. $250 for an article. /14

In response to videos of us in North Bay that she posted on Twitter, we experienced an explosion of negative criticism & online harassment. Already struggling with chronic depression & depleted by physical exhaustion following sleep deprivation during the writing of Hategate (plus 2 more articles I wrote the following week), I crashed. /15

The criticism was brutal, calling me a Nazi and suicide-baiting me, at a time when I was struggling to reconcile the fact that Martin Hunka’s squadron operated in the same Romania-Ukraine border where several of my genetic relatives where murdered during WW2 /16

My suicidal ideation returned with a vengeance. I tweeted that I wanted to apply for MAID once people w/ mental illness become eligible in March 2024.
That’s when Caryma’s bf Lee decided my mental distress was bad for Caryma’s Twitter “brand” and he blocked me from her social media accounts and emails. It started with Twitter /17

Caryma insisted it was a mistake. As she'd done before, she tried to run interference and pacify her revengeful boyfriend. That night, she sent me a letter imploring me to keep working with her. "We would take bullets for each other", she told me hours before Lee blocked me permanently /18

On Oct 2 I received a single email from Caryma, where she acknowledged my authorship of HateGate but said she no longer wanted to collaborate with me on future projects. She wrote, “I am no longer comfortable sharing my network or connections. You are equally free to accept media requests without my participation.” /19

I NEVER HEARD FROM HER AGAIN. She did not tell me to stop contacting her. She never sent me a single message saying, “Don’t message me", "Stop it.” Nothing at all. I didn’t know what was going on, if Lee was deleting my messages. I was in shock & suicidal. Caryma brought police to my door via 2 wellness checks /20

On Oct 7, Lee published a Substack article where he breached solicitor-client privilege. In it, he misrepresents events & admits HE was the one who blocked me from communicating with Caryma. He wrote about feeling threatened by our friendship and said he blocked me because me being suicidal was bad for Caryma’s “brand”. /21

Not only did Caryma’s boyfriend publish, on a public blog, privileged communications between Caryma and me, he also lied about throwing away prescription drugs related to Caryma's “undiagnosed ADHD”. We texted about the drugs on 3 separate occasions.
I wrote them to request taking down the Substack article. They didn't acknowledge me at all. /22

My mental health spiralled downhill. I had a breakdown. Caryma had been my lifeline for 1.5 years. We spoke or texted everyday, for hours. Our regular, daily exchanges for over a year involved dozens of messages per day. We told each other we loved each other. We were platonic. /23

I felt exploited & abandoned during a crisis that happened on a job. She had solicited me to go to North Bay to write the article – she said I’d get paid approx $250. She had a duty of care, which she relinquished.

She also didn't respond when I asked what was happening to the #Hategate donations. /24

To this day, I don’t know if she saw my messages – because by her boyfriend’s own admission, he is the one who blocked me from her accounts.
Last week, I was informed that police were going to charge me with criminal harassment. I was in shock because I’d NEVER received any cautions or warnings. /25

On Dec 2, the anniversary of my mother’s death, in full throes of a self-harm episode, I had to deal with police.

If it wasn’t for the compassionate, quick-thinking actions of a couple of activists, strangers on the other side of the political divide, one of whom reached out to police to plead for me to have a few more days before my arrest, I would not be here today. /26

For the police to say that Caryma had told me not to contact her "multiple" times, is a lie. I welcome any forensic examination of my phone or email records. Not ONE such message was ever sent to me. It is clear to me that a false police report was filed against me, which is a tort in criminal law.

I believe this false report was filed to shut me up, since I posted on Twitter – and also said in my emails – that I planned to write an article as a rebuttal to the Substack blog. /27

I believe they’re afraid that I will disclose the circumstances surrounding how she came in possession of my prescription Ritalin. Or that I'll talk about some of the other shady activity, such as the stalking and harassment of Caryma’s “enemies”. Or that I will disclose details about Lee’s past involvement in the prostitution business. He saw that I was engaged in convos with an escort who alleges that she knew him when he was operational. He also knows I've done my research on bulletin boards he used to operate /28

From what I’ve witnessed during our friendship, Caryma’s boyfriend Lee seems to control her law practice. He has access to her social media, her email, everything. I believe he read everything I sent her, to the point I was concerned that he had access to privileged convos where I discussed my abuse, my legal case, etc.

He became angry with me because I had sent her a private letter in June, after becoming concerned about how he was treating her and his decision-making process – it seemed to me like he was dictating her decisions, breaching privileged correspondence, etc. /29

Today, I finally went downtown to 14 Division and I was charged with "Harassment by Repeated Communication with Person."

The name I was charged under was "Elisse Hategan" - the same name used by an anonymous account calling itself SeriousMother that has threatened me with violence, and which I believe is operated by Lee, or is under his direction.

Nobody has called me Elisse since I was 19; my legal name change happened almost two decades ago.
Caryma has FULL KNOWLEDGE OF MY LEGAL NAME – she has read my legal documents, plus has my not-for-profit incorporated paperwork. She’s worked with me for the last year.

I am convinced they used “Elisse” because Lee is trying to humiliate & degrade me by bringing me back to that moment where I was a teenage neo-Nazi named Elisse. The time before I discovered my father's Jewish roots and converted to Judaism. /30

And now, I NEED YOUR HELP.
If you can spare a few dollars, please send an e-transfer to [e-mail]
If you can connect me with an affordable lawyer, please do.
I don't have any family or friends. No support or income.
You don't know me, but I am asking for your help.

Today Caryma deleted her Amazon book review.
Because being deleted by her boyfriend from her phone, email & all social media accounts without warning or explanation, wasn't enough.

I had to go from "Hero" to "Former Nazi" - because being exploited & discarded wasn't enough.

Before you ask - WE'RE GOING TO TRIAL.

No peace bonds, no bargaining. Full vindication and nothing but. Cross-examination and disclosure. And then, a full investigation into the false police report that was filed, and legal consequences for those responsible.

Pls contribute to my legal fund with an e-transfer: [e-mail]

When it comes to strategic legal actions, a criminal trial is a whole other world from premeditating strategic lawsuits for optics in small claims or other courts.

The unpacking of the #Hategate FOIP papers took me 2 days. There were 21 or 22 packages, approx 50-60 pgs each from what I recall. I read every page, 19 out of 21 pkgs, and compiled notes into a 110pg doc. That was intense labour.

THEN there was research that went w/ writing Hategate itself. Parts of it triggered my PTSD and I was bawling through many parts. Cue further insomnia.

It was agony, but I still met our self-imposed deadline.
I slept maybe 2-3 hrs at best across almost 10 days to pull this off.

I was literally shaking for the last couple of days.
I started feeling queasy and faint, and got sick on the last day. I apologized for letting her down. I told her all this. She didn't tell me to scale it back.

The only parts I didn't write were Jeremy's Story, Caryma's Story (though I edited them), and maybe 5 other pages. THEN I wrote 2 more articles the following week, after already running myself ragged.

I came up with the full Hategate title too & inputted ideas on the cover. It was a collective effort, yes, but for people to reduce me to "admin assistant" is a boldfaced lie & erasure, considering this thing would not exist as it is without the actual principal writer.

Snippets from The Making of #Hategate
(aka how I made myself sick writing this thing and didn't even get a lousy t-shirt😂😭)