‘This was hate speech’: Ontario drag performers win defamation case against blogger [Video]

Counter protesters carry Pride and Trans Pride flags to confront a protest against Pride in Ottawa, Friday, June 9, 2023. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Sean Kilpatrick

A Thunder Bay drag performer who successfully sued a Facebook blogger for defamation over baseless accusations of pedophilia says she hopes the case serves as a cautionary tale to those who traffic in anti-LGBTQ+ slurs and hate speech.

“I want them to know that they need to be afraid to be bigots again, because we’re tired of it,” said Felicia Crichton, one of the three drag performers who won their cases against the administrator of a Thunder Bay Facebook page.

Brian Webster was ordered to pay $380,000 in combined damages to drag performers and a Dryden, Ont.-area LGBTQ+ non-profit after a judge found he falsely and recklessly accused them of being “groomers” in posts about drag story time events at libraries in northwestern Ontario.

Crichton said …