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Elliott peppered his tweets to Reilly “with mean, crass” comments, the judge noted. But again he cited the fact that Reilly, like Guthrie, had also continued to tweet negative things about Elliott. And he noted that the crown in either case wasn’t able to prove beyond a reasonable doubt there was a real threat of violence.

Elliott was arrested in 2012 and charged with two counts of criminal harassment over his online interactions with the two Toronto activists. Guthrie and Reilly had both blocked Elliott on the site — a move that prevents a user from viewing someone’s tweets when logged into the website — but they told police they felt he continued to track their movements and feared for their safety.

After the verdict, Elliott said he was relieved his three-year ordeal was over and thanked all those who had contributed to his defence. While he didn’t rule out returning to Twitter, he said the court-imposed break (he was legally barred from the internet during the course of the trial) made him better appreciate the value of in-person interaction.

“It is so much healthier and nice to be out with real people,” Elliott said. “You can’t spend all your time online.”

When asked if he would take back any of the nastier things he said — cursing at the women or calling them names — he simply reiterated the judge found his conduct to be within the law.

“It’s been a very very long process,” Elliott’s lawyer Christopher Murphy said, adding that’s longer than some murder trials. “I think what his honour is saying is you’re allowed to express your view as long as your view doesn’t cross any criminal thresholds… As long as you’re expressing a political view and you’re expressing the view that is not threatening or sexually harassing then you do not need to worry about being arrested for it.”