%8 Mom Makes Website, Gets Sued for $2 Million

Mom Makes Website, Gets Sued for $2 Million


Haven't we been over this already?
(Score:5, Insightful)
by ZachPruckowski (918562) Alter Relationship on Sunday November 13, @03:29PM (#14021902)
Here are the rules:
1) Money is all that matters.
2) If you are not a millionaire, you are a second class citizen
3) You are not allowed to buy from a small company if there is a bigger one available
4) If something a company sells you is crap, well, too bad.
5) If you buy something from a company, they own you
6) Speaking against anyone or anything richer than you is illegal.
7) It is the government of the companies, by the companies, for the companies.
8) Anyone who doesn't go to the Commerce School deserves to be screwed over

Let's see, we're all guilty of...well, pretty much everything.

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Re:Haven't we been over this already?
(Score:5, Insightful)
by TrappedByMyself (861094) Alter Relationship on Sunday November 13, @04:15PM (#14022166)
Wow, it's nice to see that you've done a good job of surpressing yourself.
Who needs to bother creating a Big Brother when the cowards take care of themselves?
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Help me take back Slashdot. When did 'News for Nerds' become 'FUD and Conspiracy Theories for Extremist Nutjobs'?
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Re:She has a lot to lose
(Score:5, Informative)
by Lifewish (724999) Alter Relationship on Sunday November 13, @05:23PM (#14022606)
(http://www.srcf.ucam.org/~ajl59/ | Last Journal: Monday February 16, @12:08PM)
I read her site (google cache link [72.14.203.104]) and among the issues she raises are:

* Contamination of groundwater - "Our moraine provides 300,000 people with ground source drinking water. We're the largest region in North America dependant on ground water. This moraine is one of the major sources for the Grand River and that is the only source of drinking water for Brantford, Brent County and Six Nations."
* Danger to kids
o from shoddy construction - "The KW record published that an 8 year old boy was killed in Montreal by falling wooden pallets on an unfenced Construction site and charges may be laid against the owners of the site."
o from dangerous chemicals - "I have seen kids playing in a stagnant pond of water that was 4ft deep. It was filled with building debris including paint cans, fiberglass insulation, pressure treated wood, oil residue and tadpoles." "Parents should be aware that Pressure Treated wood is not safe. It contains many chemicals including arsenic and it's a known carcinogen."
o from building debris - "I decided to speak to one of the folks who were outside with their three year old child. The yard was not completed and there was debris, including a half buried 2 by 4 sticking out of their yard with rusty nails in it. ... The condition of the yard was so poor they couldn't allow their child to play outside at all."
* Dangerous personnel behaviour - "At another area construction site, unharnessed roofers and workers without hard hats were spotted working in the vacinity of high school students who were part of a federal Youth Training Program."


So I'd say she's valuing the well-being of her kids and those around her here, especially given the number of such cases detailed on her site.
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For the love of God, please learn to spell "ridiculous"!!!
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An unspeakable outrage!
(Score:5, Informative)
by Hosiah (849792) Alter Relationship on Sunday November 13, @04:04PM (#14022112)
(http://wallpaperfree.blogspot.com/ | Last Journal: Sunday November 06, @10:32AM)
Upon viewing the Google cache of her page, if even one tenth of this is true, that Activa Holdings, Inc. needs to be fined for all it has by the government and then shut down.

From the site:
"I saw a suspicious looking diesel tank. I took a closer look and saw it was intentionally supported on a pile of scrap wood on a tilt. That's when I noticed the rubber hose. The hose was being used to syphon the diesel fuel and below it was evidence of a spill. The area smelled strong and the ground was saturated."

So, essentially, she had a nice suburban neighborhood and then somebody came in and dumped a tanker of diesel fuel all over the place. Yeah, I'd be pissed, too, if that happened on my street. I'd be demanding a cleanup.

And:
I saw many unharnessed roofers and dozens of workers without hard hats actively working on site. This one unharnessed roofer was quite a site to see. The yellow cable in the roof photos is the extention cord for the nail gun this fella was using while working on a roof of the house at 23 Big Springs Court. He squatted down on the wood of the roof and slid down it like a slide.

Now, this is probably not her business. But still, this speaks of massive unprofessionalism. Some guys may be too macho to use safety harnesses, but every site I've ever been on required hard hats *everywhere*, even with nothing overhead. I don't know how things are regulated in Canada, but here in the USA that sounds like tens of thousands of dollars in OSHA fines, just for starters. Still other reports seem kind of iffy. Empty beer bottles can be left by any passing gaggle of kids - pictures of workers on the job in the daytime with the bottles in their hands would have been more damning.

It looks like she might have had pictures, but they're not coming up in the Google cache. Pity, as even a photo or two would confirm this. I pray for her sake that this gets the throwing out of court that it most probably deserves. As for Activa Holdings, stupid move. Before, they had one website bad-mouthing them, now they've got half of Slashdot.
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What did I draw today? http://wallpaperfree.blogspot.com/ [blogspot.com]
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Brutal
(Score:5, Informative)
by rinkjustice (24156) Alter Relationship on Sunday November 13, @04:06PM (#14022121)
(http://www3.sympatico.ca/jcomely/ | Last Journal: Saturday August 27, @07:49PM)
How does the management of Activa Holdings Inc. sleep at night? There are so many better ways this company could deal with this problem. The company is worried about slander, about their reputation being sullied? They're making themselves look worse and drawing even more attention to their alleged environmental crimes.

I guess the important thing to do is follow up on this story. Write, phone, fax or email the CEO of Activa Group, Werner Brummund at:

Activa Group
735 Bridge Street West
Waterloo ON
N2V 2H1
Canada

Phone 5198869400
Fax 5198868955
Email kyantz@gto.net

Send letters and emails of support and/or financial support to:

Louisette Lanteigne,
700 Star Flower Ave,
Waterloo Ont.
N2V 2L2
Canada

butterflybluelu@rogers.com

We should spread the word about this, the more people who know about this David and Goliath fight, the better. The worst thing we can do is just shake our heads in pity and forget about this whole thing.

Btw: what materials does Activa Group sell?
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BLAG Linux [blagblagblag.org] - Fedora's hip, activist brother. Check it out.
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Perfect test case for Canada's libel laws
(Score:5, Insightful)
by Hamster Lover (558288) * Alter Relationship on Sunday November 13, @04:10PM (#14022142)
(Last Journal: Friday July 11, @04:17PM)
The U.S. has the Sullivan decision that defined libel and, if memory serves, ruled that the offending party has to prove that the particular writings at issue were made with malice and without regard to the truth. Prior to this the defendant had to prove that what he said was the truth.

This could prove to be an excellent test case of Canada's libel laws vis a vis our Charter or Rights. If Activa Holdings is successful in their lawsuit then just about any negative comment about any company made in the press, on the radio or TV or by the public is actionable. Some provinces, such as British Columbia, have SLAPP legislation that helps in defending such lawsuits but Ontario, where this lawsuit was filed, to my knowledge does not.
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A letter from the woman being sued
(Score:5, Informative)
by ylikone (589264) Alter Relationship on Sunday November 13, @06:31PM (#14022950)
She sent this to someone at rabble.ca, which is were I copied and pasted it from:

------ Thanks so much! I have a pretty strong case of defence at my end including many letters of thanks from the Minister of the Environment and the Minister of Labour. To want to sue me for $2,000,000 is just a way of "SLAPPing me." "SLAPP" stands for "Strategic Lawsuits Against Public Participation". SLAPPs are legal actions (usually defamation actions) launched for the primary purpose of shutting down criticism, and without a strong cause of action. The plaintiff's goal in a SLAPP is not to win the lawsuit, but is rather to silence a critic by instilling fear of large legal costs and the spectre of large damage awards. Despite their right to free speech, critics may be frightened into silence e.g., taking down websites or comments made on line - if they are threatened with a defamation-based SLAPP. This method will not work with me. I've got way to much evidence at my end. I could actually counter sue for what I have been through so we'll see what happens. Either way, I'm glad it's out there in the media. Folks really need to know. With letters like yours it's great to know the message is getting out there. Thanks for your support! Louisette Lanteigne Waterloo Ont. -----
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photograph everything
(Score:5, Interesting)
by justins (80659) Alter Relationship on Sunday November 13, @07:56PM (#14023303)
(http://www.yahoo.com/ | Last Journal: Sunday May 22, @09:57AM)
Let this be a lesson. In the days of cheap digital cameras, if you're going to take on a task like this woman did, you might as well photograph every last thing and notate when the pictures were taken, and under what circumstances.

If that became a common practice, it's easy to imagine the bigger engineering companies collaborating with our elected officials to create laws and ordinances against "photographing at a construction site" or some shit. Something unconstitutional but meant to up the ante a litle bit for anyone who wants to take this task on.

In the mean time, give 'em hell.
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