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Tuesday, April 23, 2019 | Your community newspaper since 1916

CITIZEN PHOTO BY JAMES DOYLE

Easter dinner Volunteer Barbara Robin scoops vegetables onto a plate on Sunday afternoon at Sacred Heart Auditorium during St. Vincent de Paul’s 39th annual Easter dinner. Forty-six volunteers were on hand to serve 700-750 expected guests.

Hate criminal facing defamation case Mark NIELSEN Citizen staff mnielsen@pgcitizen.ca

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The So Good restaurant was damaged by a fire on the exterior of the building on Sunday. The cause of the fire is under investigation.

A defamation lawsuit against a Quesnel man convicted of promoting online hate remains in play. Arthur Topham had applied to have dismissed an action brought against him by Daniel Gallant, saying he had failed to provide any material facts supporting his notice of claim and that it had expired because it had not been served within the one-year time limit. But on April 8, a B.C. Supreme Court Justice struck Topham’s application and gave Gallant until May 31 to file an amended notice of claim. Topham, meanwhile, will have until July 31 to file a response. In a response to Topham’s application, Gallant said that he was unfamiliar with the rules of the court at the time he filed the notice of claim in March 2017. He also

said he was unable to serve co-defendant Monika Schaefer with the claim because she was in Germany serving prison time after being convicted of hate crimes there. In March 2018, Topham was sentenced to a six-month conditional sentence followed by two years of probation after a jury found him guilty of willfully promoting hatred against people of the Jewish religion. He was also ordered to refrain from posting his writings on any other internet forum where they can be read by the general public. Gallant, a former neo-Nazi skinhead who became dedicated to countering violent extremism, is suing Topham over comments he allegedly made about him online. Google had also been named as a defendant in the original notice of claim, but was removed in May 2018 after issues between the sides had been resolved, according to Gallant.

Restaurant damaged Online threats earn probation for two youths by fire on Sunday Citizen staff

Citizen staff Firefighters were called to a fire at the So Good restaurant on Eighth Avenue on Sunday afternoon. At approximately 1:45 p.m. firefighters were called the scene, according to a statement issued by the Prince George Fire Rescue service. When firefighters arrived, they found the restaurant owner spraying water

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on the outside of the building. Light smoke was coming from the side of the building, and fire crews quickly extinguished the blaze. All the restaurant patrons had been evacuated, and there were no injured to patrons, restaurant staff or fire crews. Damage to the exterior of the restaurant was estimated at $2,000 and the cause of the fire was still under investigation.

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Two youths who posted an online threat against College Heights Secondary School were sentenced this week to one year probation with a conditional discharge. B.C. Prosecution Service communications counsel Daniel McLaughlin said the outcomes were reached Monday in Prince George provincial court after the

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two pleaded guilty to one count each of uttering threats. The terms of probation come with “appropriate conditions,” he said. The two, whose names are shielded by the Youth Criminal Justice Act, were arrested in April 2018 after RCMP were notified. The threats posed no credible danger to students or staff at the school, RCMP said at the time.

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