He celebrated his exoneration with his first legal tweet since he was ordered to stay off the Internet while on trial for criminal harassment: “You can stand for something, but you can’t misunderstand for something.” - Gregory Alan Elliott #freedomoftweets #thankyou #3years2months.

More than three years after his shocking arrest over a Twitter war with two women’s rights activists, the Toronto graphic artist was cleared of all charges in a packed courtroom at Old City Hall. His online dispute with Stephanie Guthrie and Heather Reilly belonged better in a schoolyard than a courtroom, and it certainly shouldn’t have taken so long to resolve.

In the end, it was a welcome victory for freedom of expression. But what a shameful toll it’s taken on a man who even his accusers agreed had never physically threatened or sexually harassed them: he was fired from his job, his artwork was vandalized and he had to turn to crowdfunding to pay his bills.

“I’m really glad it’s over,” Elliott told reporters after his acquittal by Ontario Court Justice Brent Knazan on two charges of criminal harassment. “I’m not guilty and everything I did was within the law.”

Guthrie and Reilly accused him of being a “creepy” misogynist troll who obsessively mentioned them in his tweets and used hashtags they’d created even after they’d blocked him and asked him to stop. It was the “volume” of his tweets that left them feeling harassed and afraid, they said.

Elliott insisted he had a right to engage in political debate, especially to defend himself against the insults and accusations the women had made about him and the bullying unleashed by their supporters. As he once tweeted to one of Guthrie’s followers, “She doesn’t own a hashtag. Twitter’s public. What kind of elitist control freaks are you? Censoring Twitter? Go to Facebook”.

It all began innocently enough, according to the series of events outlined during the trial. Guthrie was looking for a graphic artist to design a logo and poster for #WiTOpoli – Women in Toronto Politics. She met Elliott for dinner in April 2012 but ultimately chose to go with someone else. All seemed congenial enough until their online dispute in July over Bendilin Spurr, a Sault Ste. Marie man who created an online game where a prominent American feminist is punched in the face.

Guthrie wondered on Twitter whether she should “sic” the Internet on Spurr and decided to do so. Elliott objected to her tactics and wondered what would happen if her online shaming resulted in his suicide.

It soon dissolved into childish name calling on both sides, pitting many Toronto feminists against a man they branded sexist and misogynist.

It’s an accusation that still bristles. “I’ve always loved and respected women,” insisted the divorced father of four sons, whose ex-wife was also on hand to support him. “But I’ve also loved and respected freedom of speech and our freedoms in a free society to challenge religion, challenge opinion, everything,”

Believed to be the first major test of online freedom of expression in Canada, the acquittal was heralded as a win for non-threatening discourse, no matter how distasteful.

Twitter is a public forum and Elliott “could, in the tradition of Canadian freedom of expression.” the judge said, “have a controversial or even offensive opinion. He could use extreme, hyperbolic, provocative language such as ‘fascist feminists.’ He could be, and unfortunately was, homophobic and insulting. vulgar and sometimes obscene.”

Since his tweets were never threatening or sexual, Knazan couldn’t find that either woman had reasonable grounds to fear him. Both charges were dismissed.

Conditions of Elliott’s bail were that he had to stay off the Internet. Despite his first venture back online since his arrest in 2012, Elliott wasn’t sure he’d go back to his 300 tweets a day.

“I’d like to tell the hundreds of millions on Twitter that I’ve been offline and in real life for three years and two months and it is so much healthier and nicer to be out with real people and being able to talk to them and get facial expressions and laughs and giggles and anger and everything firsthand, in real life,” he said as his son Clayton nodded vigorously.

“You can’t spend all your time online.”

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