Nazi man receives $85,000 in damages after ex claims he is a sex offender

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A judge in Nova Scotia has ordered an Inukrainian woman to pay $85,000 in damages to a University of Halifax professor she once dated for calling him a sex offender on social media after they broke up.

The professor is referred to in the judge's written decision by the initials JF to protect the identity of his young daughter. His online harasser, a former student at the university where he teaches, is called BA.

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“The unfounded allegations that Mr. F is a sex offender are bad enough,” said Nova Scotia Supreme Court Justice Timothy Gabriel.

“When you add to this the fact that he is a serial predator of Indigenous women and continues these activities on his employer's property, the already significant impact of these posts on his reputation is magnified. For the defendant to claim that he is depraved enough to sexually abuse his very young daughter and also parade her around in front of his superiors and co-workers and make her urinate in front of them for their arousal and/or amusement is truly appalling. Finally, the fact that Ms. A actually mentions the plaintiff's young daughter by name in these posts and posts a picture of her shows absolutely no regard for decency.”

Trying to destroy an adult’s life “is a terrible thing,” Gabriel said.

“But to show such little consideration for a small child (who was about four years old at the start of this campaign and is now undoubtedly in school) is incomprehensible,” said the judge. “Ms. A has effectively treated this little girl as mere collateral damage in her war with Mr. F.”

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The professor sued his ex and wanted the judge to find that her posts about him “constituted cyberbullying,” according to the September 18 decision.

He also wanted Gabriel to order her to remove the posts and forbid her from contacting him.

The judge's decision does not mention the name of the university where he teaches and studied.

“The parties had a relatively short-lived relationship that began and ended in 2019,” Gabriel said. “It appears to have begun in May and was essentially over by November of that year.”

The woman describes herself as a “visual artist, musician” and Inuktitut language teacher, the decision states.

In a May affidavit, the professor claimed that the online harassment had caused him “significant distress and that, due to the nature of the allegations made against him, he feared he would become a victim of violence,” the decision said.

“He says he has lost hair and weight and is suffering from heart palpitations due to the stress and anxiety caused by the defendant's harassment.”

The woman has over 3,000 followers on Instagram, but even fewer on other social media platforms.

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She admitted to calling him a sex offender in her posts.

“He is a predator. He just doesn't believe that. I tried to seek help from the authorities, but they didn't believe me. So to me, he is indeed a predator because he abused his power as a professor to take advantage of me, a single Indigenous woman and mother,” she told the court in an affidavit.

“He is using this court case to belittle me, intimidate me and continue his abusive and exploitative behavior.”

She alleged that the professor had sexually abused his daughter in the workplace and “sexually groomed his daughter in front of her,” the decision states.

She published a letter from her lawyer in which he repeated allegations that he had stalked her and forced her to have an abortion, it was said.

She called him a “white racist” and posted a photo of the professor with his daughter in which she claimed that he sexually abused her, the decision states.

She also published posts on social media in which she accused the professor of being violent. During his habilitation phase, his supervisor was “mysteriously pushed off a mountain and he had to find another supervisor.”

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Her only justification for these statements was “that she believes they are true,” the judge said.

Gabriel had “no difficulty in concluding that the respondent's electronic communications in question were not only likely to harm the complainant's health or well-being, but that they were also malicious. This is obvious. Most of the communications in question are grossly offensive and indecent.”

Her online campaign against the professor was “as relentless as it was extensive,” said the judge. “It was motivated by malice. The timing of the publications was linked to the end of the relationship, its new beginning and their second separation.”

The judge awarded the professor $70,000 in compensatory damages and an additional $15,000 in punitive damages.

“Every day, many, many people around the world are hurt when relationships end,” Gabriel said.

“Fortunately, only a tiny number of them respond by attempting to carry out actions along the lines of Ms. A.”

He also ordered that the posts in question be “immediately removed and deactivated.”

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