Thread by @LepageDavid

"Silence the Violence and Shun the Guns is a North American initiative to reduce all at-risk youth gangs and gun violence.”

No.

No, it isn’t.

It’s a guy running a scam in Toronto.

Read on…

#canada #cdnpoli #gunban #gunviolence

1/

Communities for Zero Violence (@CZV416) tweeted an article from @BlogTO warning against @STVASTG, questioning their credibility.

https://twitter.com/CZV416/status/1331404826933141505

2/

In the article, we learn more details about some weird guy harassing people to buy his anti-gun t-shirts, and who is unable to provide any details about, or proof of, the initiatives he claims to be leading to help impoverished / Black youths.

blogto.com/city/2017/08/a…

3/

@TWilsonOttawa shared CZV’s tweet. I saw it and decided to jump in the conversation at some point.

Because the whole thing sounded really, really weird.

https://twitter.com/TWilsonOttawa/status/1331564875995295747

4/

I also vaguely remembered seeing @Polysesouvient and other anti-firearms activists retweeting STVASTG. I probably replied to some of their tweets myself.

Here’s an example.

https://twitter.com/Polysesouvient/status/1225551353805778945

5/

Now, I started wondering who would be getting 23k followers on Twitter by selling anti-gun t-shirts on the street and asking for donations in private conversations.

Sure enough, it’s not a charity. Not even close.

6/

The address they list on their Twitter profile is 100 King Street West.

That’s the First Canadian Place in Toronto. No office, no apartment, nothing.

So that’s probably just a rented address from Regus or something.

7/

Digging a bit deeper, based on what’s in BlogTO’s article, I noticed a couple of websites that seemed to be using the same phone number and the same, very shady and poorly written texts: Black Bay Street, Rainbow Modelling Agency, along with The NOD and, of course, STVASTG.

8/

One place is selling overpriced gadgets through Shopify. One sounds like some pyramid scheme to “restore ourselves back to royalty”, no less.

Now, all these outfits are appropriating important causes: #LGBTQ rights, #gunviolence, #racism, Black history, and so on.

9/

So where’s all that money going?

I mean, he’s selling “hundreds of items”, doing fundraisers on various platforms, asking for donations…

He even met the Mayor of #Toronto!

Some kids must be really happy, right?

10/

Actually…

“Money generated from the sales of the ever-expanding Silence the Violence and Shun the Guns product line and other sources has been, and will continue to be, used to continue raising awareness, branding the promotion of our solution.”

silencetheviolence.ca/about/

11/

So it’s just a marketing gimmick, then?

Well...

That guy – let’s call him Robert – claims that “we've used to the proceeds to create over 1,000 weath gap closing opportunities in 2019”

https://twitter.com/STVASTG/status/1331666727227305985

12/

Elsewhere, he also throws out more numbers in other conversations or on his websites and pretends that “We are considered the AIRBNB or Uber in the industry and number one by far.”

That's quite the statement.

https://twitter.com/STVASTG/status/1225287700267315201

13/

So at that point, it’s pretty clear that the money isn’t going back to Black communities. Or any community, for that matter, other that Rob’s pockets.

As a matter of fact, he does use the nickname “richwealthyrob” on a popular social network.

14/

So what's my point?

I’m not sure. I guess I hope putting Rob under the spotlight will either motivate him to share some actual success stories with proofs of what he accomplished.

Or make him stop scamming people out of their hard-earned money to make him richer.

15/

Maybe Rob will feel like sharing his thoughts with us?

But he's asking for $1,000 to continue the conversation.

https://twitter.com/STVASTG/status/1331825451518599169

16/

Stealing money and appropriating important causes to make a buck is disgusting. I don’t care on what side of the gun debate you stand. What Rob is doing is shady, at best. And probably fraudulent.

Be careful who you give money to.

Thanks for those who broke the story.

17/17

UPDATE

So he took some time to reply and provide more inf...

On no wait. He just blocked me.

I guess there wasn't much to add to the story, eh?

This is interesting as well.

reddit.com/r/toronto/comm…

Since Robert has decided to quit the game, allow me to speak on his behalf and provide more details about his operations.

In the Reddit thread shared earlier, someone mentions an occurrence the pepper spraying of a Redditor. The attacker was distributing Black History pamphlets.

Either he did that a couple of times, or he has collaborators with the same modus operandi.

reddit.com/r/toronto/comm…

And here too.

Can't confirm it's him or if they're even related. But some details do add up.

reddit.com/r/toronto/comm…

At the bottom of this article, you can see an STVASTG "volunteer" selling their overpriced merch to collect funds for... None of our business, apparently.

ctvnews.ca/canada/toronto…

Fun fact: Robert has a backup / parrot account.

twitter.com/STVASTGC/

And they're also using two Facebook accounts.

My understanding is that one is Canadian, while the other is for their international efforts (trying real hard not to laugh here).

facebook.com/silencetheviol…

facebook.com/silencetheviol…

So, how successful is this endeavour? How much money can you make by selling tshirts and macing people into making donations?

I don't know. But they're certainly ambitious and I'm sure people at Canada Revenue Agency know the exact amount. Or do they?

facebook.com/silencetheviol…

I mean, they've already achieved 0.5% of their goal online.

Attaboy, Robert.

gofundme.com/f/closure-to-e…

Oh, and they're also hiring minors.

But this is probably all thoroughly documented in the books of Negotiate on Demand Inc., BN# 810136010RC0001, the business entity behind STVASTG. So nothing new here.

facebook.com/silencetheviol…

Remember that BlogTO article mentioned earlier? The one that questioned the legitimacy of STVASTG?

Well, the fine folks at STVASTG have a simple solution.

"They must be eliminated...they will regret they even thought of engaging in their wrong doing without knowing first who they were to provoke. The time has come. So you wanna know who's next? Racist BlogTO, you're next!"

silencetheviolence.ca/how-you-can-ma…

So they allegedly punch people in the chest, pepper spray people, threaten people, extort money from teenagers, hire minors, and, of course, run their own gun buy back program, because why not.

I'm sure they are upstanding PAL holders and can legally buy firearms from people.

So it's just a bunch of rumours.

But, you know, maybe the victims of racism and gun violence deserve better?

I say victims of racism. But they're also protecting "those who lost their lives at the Pulse club massacre in Orlando Florida on June 12, 2016. Now proudly offering “PRIDE ANTI-VIOLENCE” stickers for only $20.00 each."

Victims' families surely got their share of the profits.

I wonder if "Former Dragon's Den T.V. star" @MWekerle is aware that he's named as an "endorser" of this scam.