The petition for Montreal police to take action on Dennis Markuze’s constant barrage of death threats has reached 4,000 signatures, and the local news is starting to pay attention. As someone on twitter quipped, this may be the first time an internet petition accomplished something, because the police have opened an investigation:
Monday afternoon, following an inquiry by The Gazette, a Montreal police public-relations official said: “We haven’t received any complaints” about ‘Mabus.’
The police tune changed Wednesday morning, with a tweet from @SPVM that “we are investigating the case.” It included a plea to “please stop sending emails to our media address by signing the petition.”
Lafrenière said he was not aware of earlier complaints to police about the man’s activities. Complainants are “mainly from the (United) States,” he added, with others “from all over the world.”
Each time the petition is signed online, Lafrenière said, an email is relayed to a Montreal police publicrelations email address. By 8 p.m. Wednesday, that attention-grabbing tactic had yielded a barrage of 3,224 such individual emails.
Prior to Lafrenière’s announcement, PZ Myers, a frequent recipient of threats from ‘Mabus,’ and a biologist and associate professor at the University of Minnesota, blogged that the St. Laurent man’s tone has escalated in recent years – “his hate messages have gotten crazier, more vicious, and more frequent.”
“I have reported him to the police,” Myers added, and “seen these complaints climb the ladder from the local department, to the FBI, to the RCMP, to the Montreal city police, where they promptly fizzle out.”
Montreal police, according to Myers, have had “this deranged man making death threats on their watch for over a decade, and have done nothing.”
Lafrenière said he wasn’t aware of any complaint from Myers.
Thank you for pointing out your own incompetence.
This other report is all in French, but I included it because it has an interview with Mabus’s mom. The below excerpts translated by reader QoB (thanks!):
In a brief telephone interview with La Presse yesterday, the mother of Dennis Markuze confirmed that he is the author of the messages. However, she refuses to condemn the writings of her son, who still lives in her house, and ensures[?should be ‘assures us’?] that he is not violent. “I have not asked him to stop, no. Why should I? It is his job, it is what he believes. Why should I stop him? ” said Ms. Markuze in English.
She was promptly taken aback when La Presse told her about death threats that many people say they have received. “He never did that. He does not even kill a fly, sir. I do not believe it. You probably do not understand his messages.” When some excerpts were quoted to her (“I’ll put a bullet in the head,” “I’m going to execute you”), she replied: “Read fully what he writes and you’ll see” before hanging up.
Oh dear. Looks like Mom has typical Mom Blinders on, and refuses to believe her ittle wittle Dennis could be sending hundreds of death threats every day. I feel a bit bad for her. Apparently DM has done a very good job at hiding his obsessive hatred, so this must come as a shock to her.
Some people think this is “just internet culture,” but the internet is part of the real world. If someone was sending hundreds of people five letters or phone calls a day saying he was going to cut off my head, you know damn well the police would do something about it. And DM has been getting worse over the years – more persistent, and more violent, more nonsensical, and even showing up to atheist events in person.
I think a good example of DM’s decline is a post from 1994 on a chess message board (yes, chess):
Women are on a lower rung of evolution compared to men, the difference between men and women is like the difference between animals and plants. First comes God, then the Angels, then men, then women, then animals, then plants.
You can count the number of female geniuses on one hand!
Which women have contributed to philosophy, painting, music, chess,etc..? Alright, the Polgar sisters may be geniuses, but they are freaks of nature! To be a genius by defintion is to be a male (Webster, if you are reading this, be sure to add this in your next edition). A female genius is a contradiction of terms. A woman may be intelligent but never a genius,of course, exceptions do occur, like the baby that is born with twelve fingers.
P.S. No hate mail from the ladies, please. I’m safe here behind my computer,you can’t scratch out my eyes even if you wanted to.
Dennis Markuze
d_ma…@pavo.concordia.ca
Holy crap! At one point in time, DM had the ability to write in complete, understandable sentences! Granted, they’re misogynistic bullshit, but grammar!
I laugh because that’s what keeps me sane – but this is perfect evidence of DM’s escalating madness. His writing went from sentient to erratic word salad. The threats become more and more violent. The messages are obsessively persistent – he hops from internet cafe to internet cafe since bloggers keep banning his IP addresses, and he creates dozens of new email addresses and twitter accounts a day because his get banned so quickly. He has started physically showing up to atheist meetings, and repeatedly try to enter after being thrown out by security.
This is not the behavior of a mentally healthy person. DM needs to be committed and evaluated before he finally snaps and hurts someone. And if that shows him to be a sane but particularly motivated God botherer, he needs to be prosecuted for harassment, stalking, and death threats, all of which are crimes in Canada.
What used to be an annoyance is now a red flag – stop this man before he’s the next École Polytechnique massacre, Anders Behring Breivik, or decides to actually cut off someone’s head.
How do you say “Keystone Kops” in Quebecanese?
slightly better translation with cleaned-up pronouns, queries in []: In a brief telephone interview with La Presse yesterday, the mother of Dennis Markuze confirmed that he is the author of the messages. However, she refuses to condemn the writings of her son, who still lives in her house, and ensures[?should be ‘assures us’?] that he is not violent. “I do not ask him to stop, no. Why should I? It is his job, it is what he believes. Why should I stop? ” said Ms. Markuze in English. She was promptly taken aback when La Presse told her about death threats that many people say they have received. “He never did that. He does not even kill a fly, sir. I do not believe it. You probably do not understand his messages.” When some excerpts were quoted to her (“I’ll put a bullet in the head,” “I’m going to execute you”), she replied: “Read fully what he writes and you’ll see” before hanging up.
Also, is there any chance of his fucking idiot parents being charged as accomplices? That kind of stupid willful denial of facts, danger, and the reality of others’ suffering and rational fears should be made very, very painful.
Team Atheist to the rescue. Great work peeps, let’s keep it up before someone gets hurt.Kriss
Thanks for including that lucid piece of his hatred from the 90s – it’s illuminating, and I can’t feel much pity for what it’s casting light on.
Actually, “I do not ask him…” should probably be “I have not asked him…”
and “Why should I stop?” should be “Why should I stop him?”.That’s what I get for translating in a hurry!
Perhaps his opinion of women is based on how easily he fools his mother? Because it is a sure bet that he has had virtually no social interactions of any kind with other women. What a maroon.
and “Why should I stop?” should have a “him” at the end.Hurried translation ahoy.
Thank you!
Only if they were aware of his actions. It seems from the little info we have, that his mom was not aware that he was making death threats. I interpreted the interview quoted above as her being shocked that her son would say those kinds of things and did not know how to respond so she hung up.
Parents should turn him in definitely. But let’s think of this from a possible domestic abuse case. I am sure that his violent outbursts and death threats are not contained to only online. Is it possible that mom and dad are afraid that if they turn him or say something prior to imprisonment that he may react violently to them? Some of what his mom said are very close to the same things I have heard abused children or wives say. Just saying before you throw mom under the bus, you might want to guess what it is like to live with this person in the same house. Still, if they are scared, his parents should turn him in.
Wholly Crust! He talks with the dead!
Were all the people harassed by him truly fearful for their safety? When he appeared at the Atheist Con last year were the police called to arrest him? Did he have a weapon on him? Did he have plans to travel to each person’s dwelling and harm them? Did he make anyone so scared that they went into hiding? Or, was this guy just a particular annoyance that could have easily just been ignored, deleted, and then forgotten about? If he sends “threats” every day for over 10 years to someone, is he really considered a credible threat? Or perhaps he is just seeking attention? Is this man mentally ill? Has this assumed fact been confirmed? And if so, how does being mentally ill pose more of a threat than a person who is not mentally ill? You say his threats have become more violent? Where is this violence? I have yet to hear of one single person that has been physically harmed by him. This is just a case of someone who wants attention. And now he has it. If he is found to be mentally ill I would sincerely hope that he would seek, or be given, some help, but we should never associate mental illness with a tendency towards violence. Statistically a mentally ill person has a lower tendency to ever commit violent crimes.What saddens me is that all this crap has now, once again, distracted us all from more important issues, and is dividing the community again. If this guy were such a serious threat, I would think that he would have done something by now, other than sending e-mails containing nonsensical gibberish. I mean, he was at the Atheist Con and did not even harm a hair on anyone’s head. So in all reality, how serious is he about actually harming someone? My guess would be none.For a bunch of self-professed “rational”, “caring”, and “moral” people, I am quite saddened by how this whole thing has been handled. And for the first time I actually feel embarrassed to call myself an Atheist.
Does that include every time Marzuke himself is spamming it? Because that would be just.
And then he will do something, and people will say “Of course he did, he’d been sending signals out for years. Why would you think he wouldn’t?”
Everyone wants this man to stop threatening people and get some mental help, which he is obviously not getting now. How is this a sad thing?
You spammed the police to complain about a spammer. Classy.
Squirrel I know the internet is full of trolls handing out insults and death threats like there were candy so we develop a tendency to ignore them but if you have a guy who is sending out death threats to hundreds of people a day for over ten years you don’t think that should be taken more seriously. If someone sent you death threats everyday for years would you use the advice you’ve just given and ignore it?No the state of his mental health has not been confirmed the reason why this has been brought up Is due to his increasingly erratic comments (Not to mention his behavior of harassing people every day for years) and the fear that he may hurt someone one day because trolls don’t follow you from the internet to live events. Do I really have to explain to you why someone who may be mentally ill and know for making threats would be assumed to be dangerous. The whole point of this is that we want attention to be given to him so he can either be stopped or be given help if needed because he is not going to seek it out on his own.Btw how is this “dividing the community” you’re the only one I have heard complain so far.
Spamming it would be if each person individually signed the petition numerous times. I think Marzuke himself is the only person guilty of that.
This sort of history is common among people who commit acts of violence at home, school, or in the workplace. The signs are almost always there, all too often dismissed by people who figured it would go away if ignored. People can sit on this level of hostility for decades before violence explodes.Maybe he’ll never go so far as to kill someone, but the people he has been stalking should not have to wait for him to brandish a weapon before something is done. He was in need of help a long time ago. This may be the closest he’s come to getting it.
Oh, right. A group just flooded their e-mail, it wasn’t specifically spam. Damn you, semantics, you win again.
But it’s no big deal to get your email flooded – that’s what you’ve been saying all along, right? No big deal that one blogger has 200 emails a day from Marzuke to clean out, no big deal that other bloggers have dozens of nasty messages on their blog. What do they have to complain about?
We’re not complaining about a spammer, we’re complaining about a person sending death threats. Figure out the difference.
And what do you suggest the police do now?
Yes, because we should totally wait until someone is actually hurt or killed before taking action *rolls eyes*The community has not been divided. Get over your concern trolling.
And then he will do something, and people will say “Of course he did, he’d been sending signals out for years. Why would you think he wouldn’t?”Do you have proof that he WILL?Everyone wants this man to stop threatening people and get some mental help, which he is obviously not getting now. How is this a sad thing?Does he in fact need mental help? Where has the diagnosis been made?
I’ll keep an eye out, then. Here’s hoping that it was nothing, but you could have prevented my name from appearing in the paper, so I thank you for that.I think this the first post of yours I read that actually could concern me personally. I don’t live too far from this, actually…[wait, he graduated WHEN and still lives with his mother? Oh, he went to Concordia, that explains it.]Joking aside, I actually don’t want to post my info here, but just let me say that Montreal is generally a very safe city, safer than most US cities I’ve been to. It also has a very secular culture by comparison as well– I had friends in university who came from christian backgrounds who have never even heard of Noah’s flood (or x-gay therapy, for that matter. For the latter, their immediate response was to ask how it’s legal. But that’s a whole other story.) It’s extremely rare that I encounter anyone who is actually religious unless they are over 60 or new immigrants.
Um, no. They spammed the police until they paid attention to someone sending out death threats.
Les flics imbeciles?
I said it isn’t a crime. You said it’s a crime. I hope it isn’t a crime to spam in Canada.
Wonder Twin powers, activate!
And as atheists, people see us as a threat. Would you appreciate cops at your door because of nothing you did, only what you said?
So I don’t agree 100% with you and I am a troll? Nice. Join the bandwagon or be run over by it right? SIGH! I was in no way insulting and asking a legitimate question, but you just had to respond with a childish response? wonderful.
Maybe if this doesn’t work, you guys can threaten the cops…
DM?
[As someone who is internet-famous for organizing an event aimed at jokingly bringing about natural disasters, I find your lack of tolerance for simple speech very disturbing.]
With legal action? Probably.
Uh, if I’m sending hundreds of death threats every day, then yes, I would want police at my door. It would show they’re doing their job. Death threats are AGAINST THE LAW.
Free speech is not the same as hate speech and death threats, idiot.
… because there’s nothing more important right now than stopping DM. No seriously… not single thing is going on in the world right now that is more important than making the lives of us atheist bloggers just a teeny, tiny bit easier.
If you don’t see the difference, legal or otherwise, between stating an opinion and issuing a death threat, then you are an idiot to such a degree that you are a shame to all sentient beings.
The last paragraph of the La Presse french report is also, I think, interesting. It is about how it all started. Below, I try my own translation of the paragraph. Please, feel free and more than welcome to make any necessary corrections to the translation:According to Paul Z. Myers, it all began in the early 90’s when Dennis Markuze apparently tried to win the Million Dollar Paranormal Challenge, a contest for peoples pretending to have paranormal powers. The Montrealer, who is believed to have submitted Nostradamus as a candidate, would not have accepted (in the text it is written “n’aurait pas digéré” that could be literally translated as “would not have digested”. I do not remember if there is a similar expression in English) to be denied the prize as he considered that many prophecies of the French apothecary were realized. Since then, he would tirelessly harass atheist like Paul Z. Myers. Indeed, in an email sent to Myers a long time ago, Markuze finishes by asking: “where is my million?”
Blasphemy is against the law in some places. Does that means it’s right for someone to impose such rules?
There’s really no need to insult me. And to some of us, speech is speech, action is action, and the law is not the defininition of right and wrong.
Blasphemy is a victimless crime.But that’s not even relevant to what we’re talking about. It’s a totally different topic. Death threats should be illegal, blasphemy laws should not. The fact that blasphemy laws exist somewhere doesn’t mean we stop enforcing anti-harassment laws elsewhere. That’s a totally moronic argument.
No, not because you don’t agree with me – because you’re creating strawmen, totally missing the point, obviously didn’t read or comprehend what I wrote (because I answered most of your questions) and are creating faux controversy in defense of binding the community together. Aka, concern trolling.
It’s more of a readily apparently observation than an insult. If you don’t want people speaking the truth about you, don’t live up to the descriptor.
You seem to think you can use the law to silence someone for one type of speech, why not another? Show me the victim in this case? Who did DM hurt? Where is the tort in this case?Words are a victimless crime. He didn’t even shout “fire” in a theatre, he just talks about lighting atheists on fire.
Well, it has been a pleasure observing you make no argument at all. I’m sorry the feeling is obviously not mutual. Have fun with your little pogrom.
I’m not writing a book on the rationale behind laws on hate speech, harassment, stalking, and death threats for you. Google it.
Um, yes. It’s a matter of making sure the police department does their fucking job to protect the people– to investigate these cases to determine if there is a good chance it could end up as a massacre.This isn’t a matter of “Oh, well they should behave themselves out there” for me– No, it’s a matter of MY life and MY freedom to express myself without fear of being hunted down because I LIVE in Montreal. I want MY police department to protect ME and my fellow people in the city regardless of our religious beliefs. Yes, it is important, and I applaud Jen for what she has done to help. She exposed a fundamental problem that has infected the Montreal police department and gave it enough national attention that it might just get fixed.
You can rationalize censorship if you like, that doesn’t make you any more noble for silencing someone.
Scroll up. Read main post. See argument.
Even money says FAUX Noise gets wind of this and starts claiming “atheists are ganging up and harassing a christian, they object to free speech”.It wouldn’t be the first time, vis-a-vis the non-existent “war on christmas”..
And investigating someone’s house robbery shouldn’t be done because it isn’t as important as someone whose house was set on fire, but that shouldn’t be done because that isn’t as important as someone who got beat up, but that shouldn’t be investigated because someone else got murdered, but that shouldn’t be investigated because someone else got tortured and then murdered, and so on, and so on…. Is that the argument you’re really trying to make?
Ginx:A death threat is illegal. Period. This is not in dispute. A death threat is illegal here. In Canada, right now. Your appeal to blasphemy laws in theocracies of the Middle East is meaningless.
I think I agree with you, but I am having trouble trying to parse the first part of your first sentence….oh, you mean Fox News? Yeah, probably.
I think your argument was better stated in your previous post, but specifics aside…It’s not like I live in a bubble. I endure the same DM everyone here does, and the reason I’m not reacting to this the same way you guys are is because I don’t believe in sending the police to silence anyone, as a matter of principle.Maybe you’ve never been called crazy… though I can’t see why you haven’t. I know you aren’t, but most people are horrible judges of sanity, and sometimes any dissent is looked upon as mental failure.
The law does not require your agreement or comprehension. The law in this case, is clear:http://laws-lois.justice.gc.ca….
I never once implied what people are doing (by signing the petition) is not within the letter of the law. There are just a lot of things you can do under protection of the law which I still don’t approve of, and some things outside the law which I see as being not truly criminal.Sending the cops to harass someone for comments on the internet is one of those things which I know can be done, but which I think is in poor taste to actually do.
I know a lot of guys have been saying they’ll do something for ten years or more… none of them ever do it, whether it’s fix up that car, write a novel, or kill the president.
The same thing they do when someone makes such threats on a the street: place charges against the individual. It’s not that hard. They’ve got a name and address and evidence scattered over two decades worth of correspondence.
I’m not concerned with the police, I’m saying as an atheist community, you guys should be ashamed of how petty this is.
That is certainly a lofty way of framing it. I would have said that, if she succeeds, Jen will have made my spam folder easier to manage. Not a bad victory, but honestly… it’s not quite as grand as you make it out to be.
So, by your reasoning, if I shoot up my neighbourhood and there is no police response for two hours, anyone that phones the police more than once should be charged with a crime?
Do you think that’s my logic? Honestly?Keep in mind, I specifically said that I don’t consider spam a crime…
Just gonna leave this here: http://www.derailingfordummies…
It may be that the threats you’ve gotten aren’t anywhere near the vehemence or explicitness or sheer volume that some other bloggers have gotten, so you’re basing your reaction on getting things that aren’t so bad and assuming no one else has it worse. And you also seem to be obsessing over the police intervention aspect; again, the man clearly has some mental problems that he refuses to get treated (which of course is probably also part of the illness). Unfortunately, the only way to force people into getting treatment for something is to get the police involved. He’s simply not capable of making the decision on whether to get treated himself at the moment, and needs intervention to make that happen. I think it’s shameful that you see a man who has serious mental problems and want to completely ignore him.
I get it. You implied that his activities were just the actions of some nameless troll on the internet, and we’re all overreacting. You also seem to object to the manner of the action (petition). I’ve complained to my local police, nothing was done. Many, many, many people have filed complaints with their local, state, provincial, and federal police departments, and nothing was done. The Montreal Police have demonstrated they’re not willing to act. What would you suggest we do?Other then “deal with the death threats, because other people have it worse.”We’re not “sending the cops to harass someone for comments on the internet”.We’re trying to get the cops to *do their job* and police people who break the law.
What would I suggest? When you see his comments, delete them. I’m sorry that isn’t good enough for you, but hey, you’re obviously free to get a mob of atheists together to bug a bunch of cops who live nowhere near most of you in order to knock on the door of one of their citizens and be like, “Hey, are you crazy?” You’re free to do it, just like I’m free to call you guys thin-skinned whiners for doing so.Freedom is a wonderful thing, no? You don’t have to listen to me or do what I say, I’m just free to say it. I appreciate your effort to try to understand what I’m saying, but unless you look beyond laws (which are temporary) and concern yourself with ethics (which are, in theory, eternal, though often overlap with the law), I don’t think you are going to see eye-to-eye with me.
“I know a lot of guys have been saying they’ll do something for ten years or more… none of them ever do it, whether it’s fix up that car, write a novel, or kill the president. “I get what you’re saying but did they spend ten years e-mailing a president about how they were going to cut off his head then started to try attending conferences where the president was in attendance.
Here, I think you left this, too: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/P…
It may be, but it isn’t. I have had all the lighting on fire, burning, decapitation crap, even had my name inserted into one of his spams (I was honored, like being a musician and having Weird Al cover your song).Where did you earn your Ph.D in psychology from, again?
“unless you look beyond laws (which are temporary) and concern yourself with ethics (which are, in theory, eternal, though often overlap with the law), I don’t think you are going to see eye-to-eye with me.”This comes off as “I’m right, no matter what you say, and I will never change my mind.” It also comes off as “I don’t care what the law says, I’m right.”Good day.
Pointing out that your tactic is nothing new isn’t being passive-aggresive, considering I’m actively accusing you of derailing; DFD just saves me the time of rehashing the same old argument that I’ve had, and has been had here, more than enough times.
No, you said, “I hope it isn’t a crime to spam in Canada,” a typical example of your passive aggressive behaviour in this discussion, followed now by an attempt to weasel around my question. Let me put it more clearly, then.Do you consider it spamming to report the same crime twice after two hours without a response? Do you consider it spamming if a hundred people phone in the same crime over that period? If your answer to these questions is no, then how is the current effort to report a crime any different?
“Words are a victimless crime.”Words are not a crime. Threats are. A bully never has to lay a hand on you to be a bully.
I think it is you who missed the entire point. Attacking me for asking questions by calling me a troll? Seriously? Thank you for proving that unless we become like Fundies here, and follow you without question we are cast aside as trolls or idiots. Nice!
If you believe there’s no need to be insulting, then you should have avoided being so insulting. Please don’t pretend you haven’t been passive-aggressively trolling the comments of this discussion. I refuse to believe you could possibly be stupid enough not to realize this, even if you’d had years of practice.
So we should wait for someone to die before we do anything? Then, perhaps, you would like to take point? We don’t wait for criminals to hurt other people, that is why harassment and stalking are illegal (to a degree, depending on where you are). However bad it may sound he needs to be made an example of so that others know that the way he has acted will not be tolerated, because one day a crazy man will send someone a polite letter letting them know how he will train a bear to rape their corpse, and if they police don’t treat every threat as if it was real, people will become complacent, and no one will see these HUGE red flags in the future…
Ginx, why do you want to keep Marzuke from getting any help? He’s tormented by being entirely obsessed about particular people to the point that it’s keeping him from being able to do anything else in life, including asking for help himself. But you want to look at him, muttering away in his corner, and then look away and ignore him.
Would you allow me to follow you day and night for twenty years yelling at you how I was going to kill you? This is not “A Princess Bride” and it is not a playful “Oh, ill most likely kill you in the morning…” scenario. Seriously, if I badgered you and a TON of other people nonstop for twenty years about all the gruesome details on how you could be killed would you not think to yourself “this guy needs help.”Because as a psychologist, I gotta say, after 20 years of spewing violent rhetoric, I would start believing it, then in time living it. Luckly, as a democracy, the majority rules, and my vote goes in the “put the psychopath in an asylum” jar.
How should they go about preventing this from happening then?
“couldn’t stomach” perhaps?
It wasn’t the questions that you asked that make you a troll. It was your confident assertion that everyone who was concerned enough about a decade of death threats to call for action were idiots.”This is just a case of someone who wants attention. And now he has it.”And he got it by committing what is, in Canada, a crime. So the fact that the police were previously ignoring him was, in fact, wrong.Your response – particularly the comparison to fundamentalists – suggests that you posted looking for a fight, and now intend to flounce off delighted with yourself, now that you have successfully provoked a response.
“please stop sending emails to our media address by signing the petition.”Normalies, I don’t sign petitions on the interwebbies, ’cause I don’ expects them fer ta do no glubbernuggin’ good, but when ya feeds me a straight line like that, how’s I supposed ta resist? Petition signed.
Troll, idiot, whichever you prefer.Seriously, you seem stupid as fuck. At least you picked the right handle.
Is this idiot, “Ginx”, a sockpuppet for “squirrel”? ‘Cuz it’s equally stupid.
Yeah, Oslo is a safe place too. Oh, wait….
This isn’t a progrom, it’s not “sending the police to silence someone”.If someone is uttering threats, that’s not protected speech, any more than a neo-nazi saying “I will kill all [choose ethnic groups nazis are opposed to]” is protected. It’s a sign that an individual is far more likely to do damage to themselves, others, or society at large.So the police are, in this case, being requested to look into the case of this individual, to forestall an incident where he takes what he talks about so often and decides to apply it in practice.
This would be, again, the same logical fallacy that Mr. Dawkins appeared to engage in over the course of the Elevator Guy incident.Problem A is bad. Problem B is worse. The presence of Problem B does not make Problem A any less bad. And if you can do something about Problem A, the presence of Problem B doesn’t make it any less reasonable to do so.
For one thing, I bet you’re liking all of your own comments.Another thing, I also live in Montreal, and I don’t want this wacko threatening to kill me. What if he saw me reading atheist material on the bus home, for example, and decided to pull a knife on me? I don’t want to have to tiptoe around some idiot because the police don’t feel like doing anything.
Death threats. Illegal. How much more clear could that be? Apparently not clear enough for the Montreal police to take any more than token action for over ten years. Very disappointing. If he had threatened a local police officer they probably would have done something dramatic more than a decade ago. While DM may not have been reported as having been diagnosed with any mental illness, just reading his e-mails, tweets and comments gives that theory some weight and sends up all kinds of red flags that it needs to be investigated as a possible explanation for his behavior. The only way to know is to get the police to have him evaluated and get him help if he needs it. Or throw him in jail if he’s just a criminal bully. Getting the police off their butts is only the first step, but it’s nice to see that because of the publicity they are finally taking it.Cheers & Happy Monkey, Ray
Thanks, I learned a new expression.Anyway, the proper English was most certainly “couldn’t tolerate” rather than “would not have accepted”. I use too much “would have …” when I write something. It must come from literal translations from French.Thanks again for the expression.
Ah, the oft forgotten “passive” part of “passive-aggressive”.
After Norway ignoring the Norwegian Christian crank and now having to live with the consequences I would have thought the Canadians would have looked into DM and his threats a little more closely, or even looked at all! Seems that dangerous fundamentalism only comes from people with different beliefs to your own.
Mr Dawkins made no logical fallacy if he was intending to deny there was a problem in the first place. I don’t think Watson had a legitimate complaint either.
My ONLY problem with your argument is that these are THREATS. Here in the USA, that is not protected speech either. If he was merely making an annoying ass of himself that would be one thing, but instead it seems this guy is most likely mentally ill, and he needs if nothing else, investigated. A close relative has had to be committed twice for endangering themselves and others, and I know how much they have to do – it isn’t easy to civally commit someone here in the USA. I don’t know about Canada, but I’d hate to think of this guy killing someone because he didn’t get help if he needs it, and as I said, death threats are NOT speech that is protected pretty much anywhere.
Oh god. I read the Wiki article about the McLean murder and I think I threw up in my mouth a little bit.
“I get what you’re saying but did they spend ten years e-mailing a president about how they were going to cut off his head then started to try attending conferences where the president was in attendance.”And further, if they did, would we just brush it off as just someone wanting attention?
Was just thinking the same thing.
Wow. Do you really not see that the difference is that being an atheist isn’t a crime (at least not yet) whereas stalking and threatening people is?
Word to that. I do the same thing myself. So tired of the same derails over and over…
TROOOOOLLLLL!!!! XD