Minister Belanger Sues Judge Rooke!

[grixit]

The langauge could have gone that way, of course, and Xerox have never been particularly hot on trademark protection. However, fax machines had been around for decades before the Magnafax; it was the first one that could be used over a normal PSTN telephone line, hence the name (so it's "telephone copier", not "distant copier"). I was just amused that the Canadian courts seem to have adopted the much less common genericized trademark as their official term.

The first fax machine was patented in the 1840s.

[eric]

Actually there are some good basic reasons for people preferring fax (telecopier) transmission of legal or financial documents:
1. It's turnkey - any fax machine can always talk to any other fax machine made since the late 1970's. You might not get colour, or gray scale, but they will still talk to each other. No arguments about version of software, etc.
2. Communications level independant - a document is a document, transmit it using phone line, internet, or radio.
3. Most important for legal documents, once the protocol between sender and receiver has been negotiated, the data is inherently secure. It can be monitored, but not modified without the receiver becoming aware of it, especially on any G3 or G4 machine - lose a bit and the receiver gets as a minimum a black streak across the page. I will skip the technical details of Modified Huffman Encoding unless you are really interested except to say that fax protocols are why you can deposit a cheque at an ATM, view an image of it, have the amount recognized, and deposited to your account.

Not just a pig farmer, way back in 1984, I demonstrated to some head honchos that I could pull the image of a cheque from a sorter, transfer it between three different computers using a combination of serial ports and IBM channel architecture and finally send it on a phone line that linked to a satellite channel and then back to a phone line and back to a receiving fax machine.

[lurker9000]

Suing a judge always goes well. Do you think we will get a highly entertaining and slightly trolling opinion, or is the prothonotary/judge going to use somber reasoning and copious citation of precedent?

[Burnaby49]

Neither. As I've said in prior posts it will be struck for lack of jurisdiction without any comment on the merits of the case, or lack thereof. Civil lawsuits are the responsibility of the provincial courts, not the Federal Court of Canada.

[lurker9000]

I am a little disappointed Burnaby49 I was hoping that they would have channeled their inner Judge Richard Posner (retired) and gave Belanger a slightly trolling or comedic opinion.

[Burnaby49]

I have sad new to relate to my fellow Quatloosians. Sad, sad news. Paraclete Belanger's valiant crusade to finally have his followers allowed to simply practice their sincere religion in peace without rampant persecution from Alberta's Court of Queen's Bench is over.

Yesterday the Federal Court of Canada, another godless corporate dead thing, inflicted a total defeat on the god-fearing Christians who profess to adhere to the belief's of Belanger's Church of the Ecumenical Redemption International. People who were only trying, as best they could, to follow the doctrine laid down by their wise leader minister Belanger. A rigid doctrine that required them to follow religious practices like refusing to pay income tax, claiming that CERI beliefs allowed them to sexually molest children, not repaying their debts while ordering their creditors to stop violating their beliefs by demanding money from them, refusing to get car insurance or drivers licenses. In fact demanding that authorities agree that no man-made laws could be enforced against them if they claimed that these laws violated their religious beliefs.

But they aren't rigid dogmatic martinets! They showed laudable flexibility in their rejection of most man-made laws by their willingness to agree that a myriad of laws still applied to them. Laws like welfare, which Belanger demands as a right, their entitlements under Canada's non-contributory government pension schemes, and Canada's statutorily created free medical system. CERI ministers were, and still are, willing to accept the burden of being under the yoke of these statutorily created government programs. However the Federal Court of Canada, in shocking blow against religious freedom in Canada, ended CERI's lawsuit against Judge Rooke in a way that George Orwell presciently described in 1984.

As readers of this thread will recall Belanger and a number of his followers had sued Rooke for defamation because of his numerous disparaging comments about CERI and Belanger in various court decisions. However they were willing to conceded that $150,000,000,000 plus firing judge Rooke would have, more or less, made them whole again. I'd predicted that the Statement of Claim would be struck without leave to amend, meaning that the court had considered it, found no basis in law to continue the lawsuit, and rejected it. Instead, as Orwell had predicted, the court "unpersoned" it!

un- +‎ person. From the synthetic language "newspeak" in George Orwell's novel Nineteen Eighty-Four (1949), where it refers to a person who has been executed or fell out of favor, whose entire history has been erased.

Specifically the court did this;

Order dated 12-AUG-2019 rendered by Sylvie Molgat, Prothonotary Matter considered without personal appearance The Court's decision is with regard to Directions of the Court dated 31-JAN-2019 Result: THIS COURT ORDERS that: 1. The Statement of Claim improperly filed on December 10, 2018, shall be removed from the Court File. Filed on 12-AUG-2019 copies sent to parties entered in J. & O. Book, volume 1422 page(s) 107 - 110 Interlocutory Decision

So, apparently, the Statement of Claim was simply eliminated by being removed from the court files. So, in law, the Statement of Claim never existed, at least as far as the Federal Court of Canada is concerned and, without it, the lawsuit never existed.

I've never heard of a file court case being rejected in this manner. I have no idea why it was dealt with this way rather than being struck. My only guess is that being struck was the obvious end result and the court eliminated the work necessary to strike it, having a judge review everything and actually handing down a decision, by just retroactively terminating it before it started. There's nothing in the court records I have access to that explains why "The Statement of Claim (was) improperly filed on December 10, 2018". However from Belanger's perspective, and that of the other plaintiffs, it doesn't matter. The case is dead.

[notorial dissent]

Poor poor Paracyte Belanger, un-personed, expunged, ex-petitioner. Oh the drama, oh the inhumanity. Que the wailing and lamentations of injustice and judicial abuse, the beating of breasts, gnashing of teeth, and rending of garments. Oh wait, forgot, Belanger, so more likely a drunken, or high, whine on the utubeys.

You have brightened my day.

[AndyK]

...
The case is dead.

Are we talking Norwegian Blue dead or Princess Bride mostly dead?

[notorial dissent]

...
The case is dead.

Are we talking Norwegian Blue dead or Princess Bride mostly dead?

I think as in dead dead dead, not even resurrectable by a necromancer, which would be big no no according to the Paracyte's purported religion.

[noblepa]

...
The case is dead.

Are we talking Norwegian Blue dead or Princess Bride mostly dead?

I think as in dead dead dead, not even resurrectable by a necromancer, which would be big no no according to the Paracyte's purported religion.

I'll wager 1,000 quatloos that he refiles the lawsuit, perhaps in a different court.

[notorial dissent]

Are we talking Norwegian Blue dead or Princess Bride mostly dead?

I think as in dead dead dead, not even resurrectable by a necromancer, which would be big no no according to the Paracyte's purported religion.

I'll wager 1,000 quatloos that he refiles the lawsuit, perhaps in a different court.

Oh, I don't doubt that in the least, never let it be said that the Paracyte EVER learned from failure, or learned at all. He's about out of options though isn't he?

[ArthurWankspittle]

If he refiles, it would only become a judicial gatekeeper game of whack-a-mole.

[Burnaby49]

If he refiles, it would only become a judicial gatekeeper game of whack-a-mole.

Or the court might skip trying short cuts second time around and go through the regular process to strike it without leave to amend. There's no second act from that. Either way it's DOA.

[Tuba Cain]

Stick that in your ecclesiastical pursuit chariot and smoke it!

[Burnaby49]

One final postscript to this story. David Williams, an indigent squatter in an abandoned school, sued Judge Rooke of the Alberta Court of Queen's Bench for libel. However he was just a cat's paw for minister Belanger who was upset at how Judge Rooke had categorized him and his church in a court judgment;

[103] CERI is an Edmonton-based OPCA movement headed by a conman guru “minister” or “paraclete”, Edward Jay Robin Belanger: Meads v Meads, at paras 134-139, 183-188. Though members of CERI claim to be King James Bible literalists, this belief is an affectation, rather than real. For example, Belanger has formerly self-identified as a “Reformed Druid”. The chief focus of this group is use of pseudolaw to evade their legal obligations and to engage in criminal activities, often centered on marijuana trafficking, or driving in motor vehicles they claim are outside government regulation because those are “Ecclesiastical Pursuit Chariots”.

So with Williams as lead plaintiff Belanger sued Rooke for defamation at the Federal Court of Canada. The lawsuit, totally without merit, was doomed from the moment it was filed, the only uncertainty was how the court would dispose of it. It chose to do so in a manner novel to me, the court said the filing of the Statement of Claim was improperly made and ordered it removed from the court file. As I wrote;

So, apparently, the Statement of Claim was simply eliminated by being removed from the court files. So, in law, the Statement of Claim never existed, at least as far as the Federal Court of Canada is concerned and, without it, the lawsuit never existed.

So case over. In response Plaintiff Williams just filed this with the Federal Court of Canada;

Letter from the Plaintiffs dated 04-SEP-2019 "...I, minister David Williams am a self-represented Claimant of Court file T-2105-18 in action as set out in the claim T-2105-18 and filed with the Court on December 10, 2018, and I minister David Williams, by and for minister David Williams the Claimant and for the Claimants, requests a refund of the filing fees on the basis that Sylvie Molgat said the Court erred in accepting a claim that the "Court lacks Jurdisdiction to hear." received on 06-SEP-2019

And, yesterday, the court responded;

Oral directions received from the Court: Sylvie Molgat, Prothonotary dated 17-SEP-2019 directing that "The Court having determined, by way of Direction dated January 31, 2019, that the Statement of Claim should not have been filed, the filing fee paid on December 10, 2018 should be refunded to the Plaintiff." placed on file on 17-SEP-2019

So he got his $150 back. It's only fair. If the corrupt court 'unpersoned' Williams' case then he should get his money back since the case, legally, never existed so he had nothing he needed to pay a filing fee on. And, being a Belanger follower, he probably really needs the money. The good reverend doesn't attract a high income group of believers. Sorry, I meant followers. I doubt that many of Belanger's few CERI ministers actually believe his religious nonsense. They joined up for the promised benefit of being able to flout the law with impunity by demanding bizarre religious accommodations. With the ongoing cascading parade of court losses with the judgments dumping on CERI even the absolute dimmest, most gullible segments of our society will eventually, sooner rather than later, realize that Belanger's bullshit won't get them free houses, debt forgiveness, or out of legal troubles. So all that Belanger will soon have left are those ministers who truly believe in CERI's Christian doctrine rather than its money for nothing bullshit. Won't need a very big phone booth to hold that congregation.