Websites that smeared two city councillors seeking re-election last fall were the handiwork of a well-known political strategist and another London man, according to newly released court documents.
Councillor Maureen Cassidy and then-councillor Virginia Ridley, who was defeated in Ward 10 by Paul Van Meerbergen, went to court to find out who had registered the site domains, maureencassidy.ca and virginiaridley.ca, after the sites posted criticisms of the two councillors. Ridley was attacked for taking her child to a budget debate.
A court order was issued April 30 that compelled the Canadian Internet Registration Authority, GoDaddy, Medium, Wix.com, and Facebook Canada to reveal all information about the people that created the websites, as well as blogs, Facebook pages and ads. The records provided by GoDaddy, CIRA and Wix.com showed that the websites were registered by Amir Farahi and Ronald Young. Farahi is one of two men who run Blackridge Strategy, a firm that worked on several campaigns in the fall, including Van Meerbergen's. Blackridge also worked on the campaign of Mayor Ed Holder. In a statement released Thursday afternoon, Holder said he will not work with Blackridge again.
"I read the reports in the media today that court evidence now exists connecting two London businessmen with fake websites that targeted two candidates in our last municipal election," Holder said. "The media has also correctly reported that my election campaign, like many campaigns last fall, employed a firm owned by one of the wrongdoers, Blackridge Strategy, to handle our website and social media messaging. In light of the court documents reported today, I will not deal with Blackridge for any purpose in the future. Nothing is more important to our democracy than a trustworthy election process. There is no place in our elections for smear campaigns such as this, and no place in our city for people who seek to denigrate fellow citizens."
Lawyer Susan Toth, who handled the case for Cassidy and Ridley, said in a statement that it was crucial to find out who was behind the websites.
"This Order was necessary to lift the veil of anonymity that internet users may rely on to avoid liability," she said. "This was not just one off-the-cuff tweet or blog. Money and time was spent to attack two women candidates. This successful Application shows that the internet is not a wild, wild west where comments can be made with impunity.”
While Farahi has not yet commented publicly on the information contained in the court documents, he told CTV London's Darryl Newcombe in October that he was not responsible for the sites, but rather he was the victim of a conspiracy in which someone used his name, cellphone number, and address to register the domains.
“This experience was an affront to the democratic process," Ridley said in a statement. "I do not want this style of politics in our community. This was not an attack or critique of my politics or political record, this was a personal attack on me and my family.”
While Ridley was defeated in the 2018 election, Cassidy did retain her seat on council. However, she believed it was still important to find out who was behind the websites, so that future candidates don't have to endure what she and Ridley went through.
“It was important to us to go through the process of obtaining the information and then making that information available to the public. I wanted to find a way to discourage these kinds of attacks in future campaigns by showing that this information can and will be obtained," said Cassidy.
Blackburn News has reached out to Farahi for comment but he did not respond prior to publication.