If you guessed being accused of criminal harassment, you win a restraining order!
A right-wing former Fox TV pundit is being investigated for criminal harassment after accusing an ex-boyfriend of leaking Canadian anti-terrorism secrets.
Rachel Marsden, prominent in the late 1990s for accusing a Simon Fraser University swimming coach for raping and stalking her, says OPP anti-terrorism Const. Tony Backhurst fed her top-secret papers.
"I don't know why he (gave me the documents)," she said yesterday in an email response to an interview request, "other than perhaps he was too cheap to buy me jewelry and figured state secrets would be a good substitute."
She denied harassing the officer.
"I live in NYC," she wrote. "If I was going to 'stalk' anyone from that kind of a massive distance, it sure wouldn't be that loser.
"Anyone who reads my blog or column knows it would be (French President) Nicolas Sarkozy!"
Here's a blog posting from June about her departure from Fox News's The Redeye.
The Star article notes that the Toronto Sun dropped Marsden as a columnist in November.
Marsden has been criminally charged and convicted of criminal harassment before.
And, as the story mentioned, there was the whole Simon Fraser University unpleasantness in the 1990s.
Marsden grew up in Port Coquitlam, B.C., and was enrolled at Simon Fraser in 1995 when she accused swimming coach Liam Donnelly of sexual harassment over a 16-month period and date rape.
In 1997, prominent feminists took up her cause.
Donnelly was fired. Two months later, he was exonerated, paid compensation and rehired, and the university president resigned over mishandling the case.
In 1999, Marsden was warned she would be evicted from campus residence unless she agreed to stay away from Donnelly and SFU criminology professor Neil Boyd. Both complained she was stalking them, although no charges were laid.
Marsden does have her side of the story:
She cites the following on her website:
From the National Post (December 20/07):
The e-mail described the nationality of the targets of an investigation in Ontario involving the OPP, CSIS and RCMP. It also mentioned the alleged activities of the suspects and problems encountered by investigators."
"The Post has seen some of the documents in Ms. Marsden's possession. They include an OPP report on five suspected terrorists who are being deported by the Canadian government on security certificates, and an Ontario Police College organized-crime study guide. One of the documents, an OPP report on suicide bombers, is marked: "Restricted to Law Enforcement Personnel Only."
Here's what the N-P story also said:
The Ontario Provincial Police criminal investigations branch has already cleared Constable Tony Backhurst of any criminal wrongdoing. "We have conducted a thorough investigation and determined the complaint to be unsubstantiated," OPP Inspector Dave Ross said.
But an internal investigation continues.
"We look forward to any internal or external investigation, and Tony has been more than willing to co-operate with any investigation in relation to this," said Andrew McKay, the Ontario Provincial Police Association lawyer representing Const. Backhurst.