Article content

TORONTO — A wise colleague remarked, as at the Old City Hall courts Judge Brent Knazan was reading aloud his decision in the infamous Twitter trial Friday, virtually all the players in the case were a little unhinged.

Or, as he put it, “There isn’t a hinge to be found” among them.

We apologize, but this video has failed to load.

tap here to see other videos from our team. Try refreshing your browser, or Christie Blatchford: Judge delivers an even-handed ruling over unhinged Twitter dispute Back to video

(My colleague and I were at another courthouse, waiting for a jury in another case, following the delivering of the decision — on Twitter, of course.)

What my friend really meant, I think, was that the alleged harasser, Toronto graphic artist Gregory Alan Elliott, and his purported victims, feminist activists Stephanie Guthrie and Heather Reilly, are all a little … intense, almost evangelical, at least about Twitter.

Elliott was charged with criminally harassing the two women by repeatedly communicating with them in 2012 via Twitter and various hashtags they created or with which they were affiliated.

He was acquitted, not, the judge was at pains to point out, because he didn’t find Guthrie and Reilly credible when they testified they felt harassed and were genuinely fearful, but because that fear was unreasonable.