An article claiming that “Muslims are molesting teenage girls” in Mississauga schools — which a local web publication took down over the weekend — has quickly reappeared on another website.

The article, first appearing online in the Mississauga Gazette on Friday, made incendiary claims about Mayor Bonnie Crombie, specifically that she “is converting Mississauga into a dangerous Islamic war zone” so that “they can kill her son just for being gay.”

The Gazette later yanked the article, saying in a statement on Oct. 9 that staff of the online publication received death threats over the phone and that “freedom of speech is dead.”

The article was, however, then reposted on Gazette webmaster and co-owner Kevin J. Johnston’s own website that same day.

“I’m a fan of freedom,” said Johnston, when he confirmed the website muslimlandcomic.com was his. “Even though I’m just the guy who stuck the article up, I’m taking the flak for it.”

The article claims an unnamed father of a Grade 10 student at Rick Hansen Secondary School told the Gazette that she has been routinely assaulted by Muslim boys, an allegation a Peel District School Board told the Star that school leaders had “never heard of.”

The article’s listed author is Gazette editor Acton Michaels, who is described in his bio on the site as a “seasoned veteran of journalism,” who was a cameraman “for various news outlets in India, Saudi Arabia and Indo-China.”

Johnston, however, confirmed that the photo thumbnail on the website is “not really (Michaels). It’s an actor that was hired at some point in the past.”

Michaels' thumbnail image is also found on the website of the Cincinnati modelling agency New View Management Group, where it is identified as a model named “Emmett L.”

Emmett Leopardi, the man in the photo, called the Star on Monday night, said the use of his photo was “fraudulent” and no deal had been made to use his image. “This doesn’t represent who I am or what I think in any way,” said Leopardi, who is a 65-year-old former military man and Ohio resident. “I don’t like what it’s been associated with at all.”

Michaels could not be reached Monday to respond to Leopardi’s comments.

Johnston confirmed that he founded the online publication, formerly called the Mississauga Jackal, but that Michaels bought majority control and cut him “a good cheque.”

Johnston said the Gazette has not reported the death threats to police.

Mayor Crombie, however, filed a hate-crime complaint on Saturday, before the Gazette pulled the article down. She said Monday that she was not aware that it had reappeared on Johnston’s website, but her complaint had been assigned to an investigator.

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Peel Regional Police Const. Paolo Carretta could not confirm the status of the mayor’s complaint, saying only that police would have to “go through everything line by line and look into the (Criminal) Code and see if it applies.”

Johnston didn’t seem worried on Monday. “Should this go down and the police see something (they can charge us with), let Bonnie know that our website traffic is going to skyrocket,” he told the Star. “The level of support that we’ve received is unbelievable.”

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