Well folks (and hello new followers). I said there would be an update on Kevin Johnston's Benny Hillesque, futile, and self-defeating flight from Canada to seek asylum in the United States. 1/
And like the posts from yesterday, the part dealing with Johnston's trek across the border is still genuinely funny.
However, I am also going to post some other parts so that you can get a real idea of the character of both Johnston and LaJune which is much more infuriating. 2/
The video is two and a half hours.
I will NOT subject you to all of it.
I'll start with the... er... highlights?
First, any thought that it wasn't Kevin and was instead another grifter who coincidently was trying to illegally cross the border is put to bed right away. 3/
You get a taste of LaJune's condescending attitude of anyone who would dare question her early on (it gets worse).
She describes Kevin as having "thick skin" but whose life is in danger from a government even more corrupt than the US. 4/
By the way, a few reminders of who April LaJune is for those who don't read the previous thread. 5/
Again, it is very clear she doesn't like to be questioned. 8/
She references @MackLamoureux who tried to interview her, then goes on to explain how Kevin Johnston is a text book example of a person seeking political asylum.
Spoiler: he is not. Like, at all. 9/
Not surprisingly, LaJune seems to have a thing against Mexican refugee claimants.
But she also explains here the process by which she decided to call US border officials. 10/
She is very casual about the idea that Kevin could have died (you really picked a winner to help you Kijiji) 11/
All this is genuinely funny.
The next part will be decidedly less so.
I'm going to post what I have so far before moving one. 12/
I think it is important here to remind readers WHY Kevin J. Johnston was attempting to flee the country.
In 2019, after years of defaming and harassing @mohamadfakih8, Johnston was ordered to desist from further harassment and penalized financially. 13/
One can find the things that Johnston baselessly accused Mr. Fakih of so I won't repeat it here. Johnston also harassed Mr. Fakih and staff at his restaurant. At one point he followed Mr. Fakih, who was with his young children, berating him in public. 14/
Despite his losing the civil case, Johnston refused to comply. He continued to defame Mr. Fakih. He said that he would never pay any judgement against him. He laughed about making a mockery of the court. 15/
In 2021, it finally bit him in the ass as he was found guilty of contempt and sentenced to 18 months detention to begin being served on January 4, 2022. 16/
I include this to remind people that while we can laugh at his current humiliation, Kevin Johnston has done, and turns out continues to do, real harm to real people. 17/
And that brings us back to LaJune. In much of the remainder of the video focused on Kevin, she continues to parrot the lies, and they are lies, he told about Mr. Fakih.
In short, Johnston is determined to continue to defame Mr. Fakih even now. 18/
I'm purposely cutting out the baseless accusations in these clips, but LaJune confirms that Kevin repeated the defamation about Mr. Fakih this morning when they both had the opportunity to speak. 19/
We certainly learn about LaJune here in this part which is just bizarre. 20/
She parrots Johnston's dismissal of the Rohingya genocide while continuing to parrot his defamation of Mr. Fahih. 21/
By this point you will have noticed that she is responding to the chat where some were taking issue with her claims.
One can see here how she deals with dissenting views. 22/
In fact, condescending abuse followed by deleting the contrary comments seems to be the norm with LaJune and her moderators. 23/
24/
25/
We can also see how credulous LaJune is when she agrees with who the "real" guilty party is in Burma and why she can so easily believe Johnston's defamation. 26/
So the explanation as to why Johnston was found guilty of contempt isn't because he is guilty, but because the courts and the government is corrupt and out to get Kevin... because Kevin told her this and she unquestioningly believes him. 27/
Now her guest is another Canadian. Norman Traversy is another conspiracy proponent, supporter of QAnon, and someone who likes to name drop all the famous people he thinks he knows. 28/
Since he mostly talks about himself I don't think I need to get into him but if you want to know more, here is a link. 29/
Back to LaJune we see how confirmation bias and Dunning–Kruger work together to create someone condescending and stupid as she continues to go after people in her chat. 30/
31/
Now throughout the very long video she continues to attack @MackLamoureux. Here she shares his email and, I guess, breaks it down in her smarmy, smug, and self-satisfied manner. 32/
If you want to read his great article you can find it here. 33/
1. By now I'm guessing that most of my Twitter followers are aware of the most recent threats against Trudeau and the subsequent of a suspect. I think there is an even more important story though related to the poisonous influence of social media
2. Dawid Zalewski was arrested for making death threats against the Prime Minister. The following video was posted to his second Facebook profile. Be warned that it may be triggering as it promotes graphic violence against the PM and others.
3. Zalewski is clearly not well, but I think would be wrong to dismissively call him "crazy" move on without further examination. There is a reason why he got to this point and I believe we can learn a great deal from his social media footprint.
1. I’ve been enjoying my summer break and have not been paying a lick of attention to the Olympics. Until today however since Twitter has collectively lost the plot.
2. Earlier boxer Imane Khelif defeated her Italian opponent in the first round when Angela Carini quit after 45 seconds stating that she had never been hit so hard.
To be fair, I don’t enjoy being punched in the face either so I can at least sympathize with Carini.
3. Now a preliminary fight would never be important enough to make international news under normal circumstances however we are, as the saying goes, living in interesting times.
1. Stephen Yaxley-Lennon (aka Tommy Robinson) was arrested in Calgary on an immigration warrant apparently. He may have since been released, though he has to turn in his passport and remain in southern Alberta.
I'd prefer that he be kicked out immediately.
2. Despite claiming to have been a "political prisoner" many of Yaxley-Lennon's criminal convictions his Islamophobic "activism" and a number of convictions since have had nothing to do with his political views.
3. In 2005, he was convicted assaulting a police officer who intervened during an argument Yaxley-Lennon was having with his then girlfriend.
1/ It's been a while since I've done a thread here, but the recent focus on Pat King got me to wondering what was up with his own Salacious Crumb, Tyson "Freedom George" Billings.
2/ Last time I looked at Billings he was a part of the efforts to set up a permenant camp outside Ottawa so there could be daily protests, though the original plan involved surrounding the police and arresting politicians.
Suffice to say it didn't go anywhere.
3/ Billings and Ron Clark soon headed home, but they both soon got involved in other protests including the anti-carbon tax protests occurring in the province. The numbers at these events have been small but that hasn't stopped from politicians from courting the fringes it seems.
1/ Though I'm not especially active these days, I'm still sometimes gobsmacked by some of the ridiculous (though sadly effective) rage farming by some on the right. Harrison Faulkner of "True North" is just a recent example of that.
2/ So a bit of background. Musical artist Karan Aujla won the 2024 TikTok Juno Fan Choice Award at the award ceremony this past weekend.
I think it was this weekend. Truth be told I don't pay a lot of attention to awards shows.
3/ It should be noted that Aujla has been in Canada for years emigrating as an orphan. He graduated from high school in Canada. The album was produced by a Canadian on a Canadian label.