Thread by @ARCCollective

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/

https://twitter.com/ARCCollective/status/1478555949988081665

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/

durangoherald.com/articles/22407…

6/

https://twitter.com/jjmacnab/status/997139213274378241?s=20

7/

esquire.com/news-politics/…

So, back to her VERY longwinded story.

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/

nationalpost.com/news/canada/ju…

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/

cbc.ca/news/canada/to…

You can find the court transcripts here.

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/

lolg.ca/docs/default-s…

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/

vice.com/en/article/bv8…

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/

vice.com/en/article/n7b…

Finally (at least for this thread) LaJune claims that Johnston's crimes are not crimes because there are no victims.

I mean, unless you don't count actual victims like Mr. Fakih. 34/

So, I'm sort of exhausted from listening to awful people, so I think this is where I'll end the thread.

But remember while we rightfully ridicule Kevin Johnston, we need to remember the harm he caused to a lot of people and to society. 35/

UPDATE: Just a quick one. This article also details what happened to Kevin Johnston.

I suppose we shouldn't be surprised that Artur Pawlowski is also involved in this. 36/

newstalk955.com/the-backstory-…

37/

Update 2: Missed this posted by @CBCMeg earlier in the day.

I’m not sure the man is capable of telling the truth. 38/

https://twitter.com/cbcmeg/status/1478787446422736898

@JaneQCitizen found the audio of Pawlowski's self-serving call into a right-wing radio programme. 39/

https://twitter.com/JaneQCitizen/status/1478938606550933508?s=20

40/

https://twitter.com/JaneQCitizen/status/1478938789988876288?s=20

And of course Artur Pawlowski is a fan of April LaJune's video about Kevin. 41/