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On with the show…
The Alex Jones trial is getting all the attention, but we Canadians have our own unhinged lunatic recently smacked down at a trial.
Yes, our SovCit friends are at it again, and a judge in Alberta (the same province where the ultimate judicial takedown of “maverick” litigants was written) has thoroughly had it with their shit:
Sandra Ann Anderson is not exactly poor. The Calgary native recently came into a “multi-million-dollar” inheritance from her father.
But she still refused to repay the $160,000 owing on her condo mortgage, insisting Canadian laws did not apply to her.
Anderson earlier evoked similar “pseudo-law” concepts to counter fines for smuggling high-priced horses across the border from the U.S.
But this week an Alberta judge lowered the boom, calling the heiress a greedy, abusive “litigation terrorist,” handing the condominium over to the Royal Bank in a foreclosure case and severely restricting her access to the Court of Queen’s Bench.
[…]
In the pseudo-law documents she filed, Anderson said she would essentially take over court infrastructure and act as prosecutor and judge of the federal “trespassers,” Rooke noted. The action was struck down and the woman ordered to pay the government’s costs.
The judge documented how she follows closely the example of a sovereign-law guru in the U.S., Carl Lentz. Among other tactics, she employs the “strawman” theory, claiming she is not really Sandra Ann Anderson — who holds the condo mortgage — but other personas, such as WOMAN SANDRA OF THE ANDERSON FAMILY and sandra-ann:woman.
She claimed her mortgage with RBC was not valid because it had no “wet-ink signature,” and filed a document saying Rooke and Alberta Finance Minister Tyler Shandro were personally responsible for her debts. Anderson also claimed a British bank had paid off the mortgage with a voucher signed by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, the ruling said.
Her disruptive, abusive behaviour during hearings has had her thrown out of court and muted on teleconference calls repeatedly. Meanwhile, it appears she has “absconded Canada” to avoid arrest on her criminal charges, which range from impaired driving and fraud to carrying fireworks on a plane and forging COVID test results, Rooke said.
I’d say this is what happens when you don’t hire a lawyer. Except that there have, in fact, been some cases where actual lawyers go along with “freeman on the land” arguments. (Rest assured, I’ll never do anything like that in my legal practice, or my name’s not MAN DAMIAN OF THE PENNY FAMILY.)
As for Mr. Jones, who now finds himself on the hook for around $50 million in damages to Sandy Hook families, he’s taking defeat with dignity and honour:
Infowars host and conspiracy theorist Alex Jones has blamed George Soros after he was ordered to pay $50 million in damages over comments he made about the 2012 shooting in Sandy Hook, Connecticut.
Jones said in a Friday broadcast that Soros had joined other "operatives" in coordinating the trial, though did not specify any names. He also accused Judge Maya Guerra Gamble of being a "blue-haired SJW" and claimed she "altered the record of the trial."
"This is beyond any kangaroo rigged court ever," Jones claimed without evidence.
Jones alleged that Gamble had turned off the livestream of the trial at certain points when his lawyers were speaking in an attempt to discredit him. He also said she was "coordinating with the corporate media" who were present in the courtroom covering the trial.
Alex Jones’ legal team has been about as competent as Rick Moranis in Ghostbusters II, but would it have really mattered anyway? Even the best lawyer is only as good as a client who actually takes his advice.
A few things to keep in mind before reading this Daily Mail piece about life in Russian-occupied Kherson:
Every side, even the undisputed good guys, uses propaganda in war.
The story is based mostly on secondhand accounts, from sources whom the author says must have their identities protected at all costs.
It’s the Daily Mail.
That said…if even a fraction of this is true, what the Russians are doing in Ukraine is even more unspeakably barbarous than we knew. And we already knew it was pretty freaking bad.
A cloud of thick smoke hangs over the occupied city of Kherson in Ukraine. Its very stench is evidence of Russian war crimes, on a scale almost too sickening to contemplate.
The smoke comes from mobile incinerators that are running night and day. Vladimir Putin's paranoid soldiers are burning the corpses of Ukrainian citizens tortured and murdered on suspicion of helping the resistance.
And they are dispatching the bodies of their own comrades too — hundreds of them. The Russians are killed by the constant pounding of Ukrainian shells from artillery placements surrounding the city and by highly organised, secret units of freedom fighters.
They are even killed by gangs of youths armed with knives who set upon drunken Russians and stab them.
The incinerators fill Kherson with the reek of charred flesh. There is no mistaking the smell and it adds to the pervasive sense of horror in this Black Sea port. It is a living hell.
[…]
In the neighbouring city of Mykolaiv, still under Ukrainian control, Russian strikes have cut off the water supply.
This is a city of almost half a million people, the size of Liverpool, and it has no running water. Thankfully, the government is able to send in tankers of drinking water, and people queue for hours each day with plastic bottles to collect their ration.
But if the Russians were to cut off the water in Kherson, the AFU could not get in. The city would die of thirst.
Nonetheless, both sides now live in constant terror of what their enemy will do.
The Russians know they have only the most precarious hold on Kherson and will probably be driven out in the end, whether that takes weeks or years. Ukrainian surrender is never going to happen.
That is why Putin's soldiers are using incinerators. Mass graves leave behind evidence of war crimes. By burning the bodies, they destroy the evidence.
British defence secretary Ben Wallace warned back in February, before the invasion, that this could be Russia's unofficial policy. The Ministry of Defence released footage of a mobile crematorium, mounted on a lorry and capable of 'evaporating' corpses, to use the terminology of the MoD.
These lorries are built by a St Petersburg company called Tourmaline, whose website claims they are for the destruction of hazardous biological waste.
'It's a very chilling side effect,' said Mr Wallace, 'of how the Russians view their forces.
'Being a soldier, knowing that trundling behind you is a way to evaporate you if you are killed in battle probably says everything you need to know about the Russian regime.'
But, of course, it is not just Russian bodies being burned. And how many of these lorries are now in Kherson, my sources cannot say. But there are certainly enough to create a perpetual smog over the city.
Even working 24-hours-a-day, the incinerators might not be able to dispose of all the dead. When the Russians retreated from the town of Bucha in April, a mass grave of hundreds of bodies was discovered. Many of the dead had their hands bound behind their backs, and scores had been tortured.
Not all the victims of civilian slaughter were buried. Troops left hundreds more strewn in the streets. Photographs of the carnage provoked a worldwide outcry. But even those hideous scenes could not compare with the aftermath of the destruction of Mariupol in March. Satellite photographs showed trenches that could conceal an estimated 9,000 bodies. Witnesses said the dead were buried in layers, across an area the size of three football pitches.
When Kherson is finally liberated, who knows what fresh horrors we will uncover.
However the Russians try to disguise it, this is mass murder of civilians on a scale not seen in Europe since World War II.
It is cruelly ironic that as the rest of the world lets this war fade into the background, Russia’s conduct gets even worse.
Actually, that’s probably part of the reason it’s getting worse. When no one is looking, you can do pretty much whatever you want.
Crazy is crazy, all borders aside. As an American, it's kind of nice to be reminded of this. Misery always loves company, I guess. Thanks!