In the YouTube world, he’s known as “Pussymcfats” and until he found a $1.2 million lawsuit waiting for him in his inbox, Toronto Police Const. Adam Josephs was known to him only as Officer Bubbles.

Josephs wants YouTube to unveil his real name, along with those of the 23 other John Does who made comments on a series of allegedly defamatory cartoon videos. But Pussymcfats maintains that what he wrote online was fair, and he’s ready to remove the cloak of anonymity.

Const. Josephs meet Todd Mara. He doesn’t use Facebook but here are the basics: Age: 33. Current city: Hamilton. Status: Married. Children: 2.

Mara saw the notorious viral video that gave Josephs his nickname when the officer threatened to arrest a G20 protester for blowing bubbles. He also watched a series of cartoons that depict an officer named “A. Josephs” engaging in various abuses of authority.

In one cartoon, the officer threatens to arrest a young woman dancing on the street for disturbing the peace, and later arrests her for assault after telling her, “I am touched by your expression of love.”

Pussymcfats wrote in response, “officer bubbles probably looks at himself in the mirror a lot.”

Mara said he “forgot about Officer Bubbles” and the comment. He hasn’t used his YouTube account for months.

“Now all of a sudden, Officer Bubbles is back in my life. I never asked for this,” Mara said. “I don’t know why this guy wants to draw more attention to himself. I can’t figure it out. It’s ridiculous.”

The looming lawsuit is a headache, but Mara has no regrets.

“I mentioned, according to what I saw in the video, that he’s an egomaniac,” Mara said. “I stand by what I did. I thought he was out of line.”

In his statement of claim, Josephs suggests the cartoons and comments are “false and devastatingly defamatory” for implying that he is a narcissist, among other things.

He also asks YouTube to reveal the identity of “ThePMOCanada” — creator of the cartoons — and the identities of the 24 others who commented online. YouTube is also named as a defendant in the lawsuit for hosting the cartoon videos.

Josephs’ lawyer, James Zibarras, said the constable and his family have received threats of physical harm as a result of the cartoons and the comments.

“The real concern was the backlash from anonymous posters,” Zibarras said. “Some of the comments went further than others, but the overall concern was that the reaction was inflaming or encouraging quite an aggressive backlash that was turning into violent threats.”

But now that the cartoons have been removed from YouTube, Zibarras said the case may be dropped.

“At this stage, we were successful in getting the cartoons taken down, which was our primary objective and I don’t know whether we will or we will not pursue the remaining remedies available to us,” Zibarras said.

The cartoons are just one of many online jokes at Josephs’ expense. A Facebook page named “Officer Bubbles (Adam Josephs) Must Be Fired” lists the constable’s email address and calls on users to “have fun” with it.

But for Mara, the 11-word post he left in June was a simple contribution to a public discussion.

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“I’m a compassionate person. I don’t think he should be ridiculed forever because of this. I was done with this in June. I left my comment and never thought about it again.”

Mara said he received Josephs’ statement of claim by email from YouTube’s owner, Google Inc., on Oct. 8, but didn’t realize “how serious it was” until he read about the defamation lawsuit in the Sunday Star.

“I didn’t know if it was a joke, because it’s Officer Bubbles — automatically you think it’s a joke,” Mara said. “When I saw it in the Star I was surprised.”

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