The man behind a “hate-filled” blog has lost a civil claim against a Kelowna-based family and their fruit-packing company.
Supreme Court Justice Gibb-Carsley ordered during a judgment on Dec. 11, that the court side by default with plaintiffs, Sandher Fruit Packers Ltd. and its owners, the Sandher family, in a civil claim case against defendant Daryl Grant MacAskill.
The decision was made after the defendant repeatedly failed to attend hearings and didn’t comply with the Supreme Court’s Civil Rules, “acting in a manner that constitutes an abuse of the Court’s process that he should be disentitled from continuing to defend against this proceeding.”
MacAskill, who also goes by the alias ‘Ace Ventura’, runs the online blog ‘Gangsterism Out’, which the court describes as “an ongoing campaign of unsupported hate-filled vitriol against the plaintiffs (the Sandher family).
Against the Sandher family, MacAskill alleged they are involved in a number of criminal activities such as drug trafficking, murder and the production of chemical weapons. He also alleges the family is connected to the Sinaloa drug cartel and the Brothers Keepers gang, as well as designated terrorist organisations, the Khalistan Tiger Force and the Babbar Khalsa International.
MacAskill also makes connections to Kelowna politicians such as Mayor Tom Dyas and MLA Gavin Dew as part of said operations.
The plaintiffs filed a civil claim in August 2024, saying the blog amounted to defamation and requested the blog to be stopped and sought damages.
Later, Supreme Court Justice Branch ordered an interim injunction forcing MacAskill to remove defamatory posts and stopping him from posting defamatory statements in the future.
MacAskill never stopped posting on Gangsterism Out, leading to the court declaring him in contempt of the Injunction Order, and an eventual warrant for his arrest for contempt was issued on May 6.
The court reported that MacAskill hasn’t made an effort to address the warrant since it was issued. He continues to write on his blog with 314 posts from May. 8 to Dec. 18, with some of them targeting the Sandher family as well as posts against Justices of the Supreme Court.
He continues to email media outlets with these posts.
Extortion
On Aug. 26, 2024, MacAskill filed a Notice of Application for the case to be dismissed, saying the claim against him would censor public interest. On Sept. 4, 2024, MacAskill filed his response to the torts of harassment and internet harassment and pleaded no defence to these specific torts other than he says that his claims against the plaintiffs are true.”
The Justice noted this, saying, “without question, free speech is a cornerstone of a free and democratic society. People are entitled to express their opinions and their concerns regarding their personal views of others and events in the world. However, there are limits to that expression.”
Justice Gibb-Caresly said that there is also reason to believe MacAskill was “not driven in pursuit of the truth, but instead to extort money from the plaintiffs.”
In an email to one of the plaintiff’s communications consultants, Chris Parry, sent Oct. 16, MacAskill posed the possibility of removing his content for a financial offer from the Sandher family.
“Next court appearance WILL cost the Sandhers $50k+, and it is guaranteed to change not a thing. Not a thing.
They have blown $400k so far. (surely),” he wrote.
“YOU go n n and tell these sickening MFers to make me an offer to remove everything.
Do it now you bag of [expletive].”
The judgement
The repeated failures to comply, the fact MacAskill’s affidavits were marked as “inadmissible hearsay” and “manifestly false evidence” by Justice Gibb-Carsely, as well as offences made towards the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Canada and the plaintiffs’ lawyers led the Justice to order MacAskill’s response to be struck, meaning judgement is awarded to the plaintiffs by default.
Justice Gibb-Carsely noted the order to strike a party’s pleadings for non-compliance is only used rarely, but in this case was justified.
MacAskill did not attend the most recent hearing on Nov. 10.
Justice Gibb-Carsely also noted MacAskill may have moved to Ontario and refused to appear at the hearing by video despite there being sufficient evidence he was aware it was taking place.
The Justice also ordered damages to be assessed at a future hearing and that special costs will be granted to the plaintiffs and to be determined before him.
There was also an order for MacAskill’s signature to be dispensed.