FIGHTING FALSEHOODS: When Lies Meet Legal Consequences
This weekend, I will be working on a Statement of Claim for my upcoming legal action against Michelle “Mitch” Hancock.
For at least a year, Mitch has been maligning me on X (formerly Twitter). She has insulted me, called me names, and made boldfaced, false accusations that I run anonymous Twitter accounts in “revenge” against Caryma Sa’d – a Toronto lawyer who was my former best friend and working partner between 2021-2023.
Not only do I not own those accounts, I don’t even know who operates them. Yet my repeated attempts to correct Mitch were ignored, with her continuing to double down on her malicious lies.
On Tuesday July 8, after Mitch openly taunted my informal Cease & Desist post with the quip, “If you want me to stop stating the truth and talking send me a REAL cease and desist letter. Not some tweet from a social media platform”, I obliged.
I thought to myself, “As you wish”. And this is the letter I emailed her.
At first, I worried that she might ignore it or pretend she hadn’t received it. Fortunately, Mitch was quick to acknowledge receipt of my email with the following response – which, in turn, prompted me to correct her assumptions.
These screenshots show our exchange.
I don’t want to sue Mitch, but it appears that I don’t have a choice. Looking at our email exchange, what troubles me most is Mitch’s blind naïveté and stubborn (but wrong) belief that what she published about me is a matter of “opinion” and “freedom of expression” – when in fact it’s an open-and-shut case of defamation.
Any semi-competent lawyer could tell her that.
Mitch claims that she forwarded our correspondence to her lawyer – who she initially named as Caryma.
If Mitch indeed forwarded our correspondence to Caryma, I believe it is extremely irresponsible for her to encourage Mitch to persist with an unwinnable defence, rather than do everything in her power to talk her off the proverbial ledge.
In my view, if Caryma read this exchange, she should be sitting Mitch down and giving her some proper, hard-won advice about the difference between expressing opinions versus making statements of fact.
She should be reminding Mitch of what happened to two other Caryma “stans” (a euphemism for hardcore, devoted fans), Steph and Tanya, who were likewise convinced that Caryma’s “enemies” operated anonymous Twitter accounts dedicated to harming their precious Caryma: they both lost in court and faced disastrous financial consequences.
Caryma herself made similar accusations, then sued her targets, and also lost. Repeatedly. In fact, not even a month ago she was forced to issue a quasi-apology that included an admission of “causing harm” to the Ages, a couple she falsely accused of things they hadn’t done.
Caryma would be remiss in her legal obligations if she didn’t also advise Mitch about the implications of garnishment, a subject that surely must be in the forefront of her mind these days, given evidence that surfaced on social media indicating that Caryma herself may have been recently garnished following a civil court loss.
Mitch expressly believes that being on ODSP renders her judgement-proof – which begs the question, If you can’t squeeze blood from a stone, why would anyone bother suing her?
Because it’s not solely about the money.
It’s about not allowing lies to be spun into truths by a close associate of the woman who caused me to be wrongly arrested twice, nearly three times, before all charges against me were dropped.
It’s about the principle. About being defrauded, after labouring for free for an entire year to build Caryma’s “brand”, believing Caryma when she said she would share moneys and credit with me.
After being set up for not one but TWO false criminal charges, and nearly a third arrest
After being attacked with a groundless peace bond application that was thrown out of court
I am NOT going to have my trauma, my exploitation, and the abuse that Caryma put me through in her efforts to silence me using police overreach and the criminal justice system – be reframed by Mitch, or anybody else.
I am NOT going to let Caryma’s stans portray me as a “criminal harasser”, “obsessive nutcase”, “fucking lunatic”, “rejected”, “crazy obsessed ex-lover” who Caryma requires “protection” from.
Mitch’s attempts to call me “obsessive” often enough that it sticks, betray what looks to me like her own obsession to defend Caryma at any cost, regardless of truth or evidence presented. In my view, this is a marker of fixation and escalation of commitment. Though she has no knowledge of the relationship between me, Caryma, and Lee (because she wasn’t there to witness it), Mitch’s bias for Caryma and prejudice against me, possibly fed by other rabid stans’ gossip and hearsay, leads her to presume she knows what really happened. Mitch then acts upon those false assumptions without verification – proceeding directly to attacking me with malicious fabrications.
I am Caryma’s victim, not her maligner. I refuse to be shamed into silence, into not speaking out against Caryma’s unethical & unlawful behaviour.
Mitch might have convinced herself that what I wrote about Caryma and Adam Lee is “revenge” because Caryma wasn’t “going to love” me, but she is wrong. I neither want Caryma’s “love” (if she is even capable of feeling such an emotion), nor could love back someone who could do to another human being what Caryma did to me (and others), and what she allowed her controlling, revengeful boyfriend to do to us both.
I don’t want Caryma to love me, because I don’t love her. Not anymore. Not after everything she said to me was a lie. Not after she manipulated the Canadian criminal justice system to frame an innocent person – someone she repeatedly told she loved.
I want justice and accountability. And I want the money that is owed to me, plus compensation for what she put me through.
Every word I wrote about Caryma and Adam is verifiably true, and I will take a polygraph test any day to prove it.
To discredit me and prejudice the public against me so I wouldn’t be believed, Caryma painted me as a criminal. She lied to police for months, until she finally convinced 14 Division Toronto Police to have me charged criminally. After all, who would believe a “criminal harasser” over an upstanding lawyer swearing up and down that she doesn’t owe me money, and no, she hadn’t taken my Schedule III prescription medication, and hadn’t engaged in behaviours “unbecoming” of a lawyer?
By setting me up for crimes I didn’t commit, Caryma reframed me as a “conspiracy theorist” who was lying about her boyfriend being a prostitution industry impresario (with an alleged history of exploiting sex workers), who lied about him hacking our communications and being the instigator of our “break-up”, and lied about his real name being Adam.
None of these things are lies. And because they are true, they are not defamatory.
Caryma told police that my tweets and screenshots of DMs (which provide evidence that stalking enemies and revenge-plotting is arguably a raison d'être for the duo) were “criminal harassment” that threatened her professional reputation. She lied to them about pretty much every facet of my history and character, fabricating endless falsehoods and egregious accusations of criminality.
As a result of Caryma’s lies, I suffered through the trauma of two wrongful criminal charges, a brief incarceration, a near-third arrest, a bogus peace bond, relentless false police reports filed against me, and thousands of dollars in legal bills – and for what?
Because I dared to speak publicly about how Caryma love-bombed me, used me to mentor her as a journalist, extracted ideas from me that she used in Twitter captions and podcasts, and exploited me for editing and ghostwriting articles for her, for advice, emotional support, and endless encouragement – all while promising that we would split the profits and build a future together (complete with a non-profit organization that would generate income for both of us).
And then, she turned around and blocked me without a word of explanation, all because her jealous boyfriend (for the third time) seized control of our communications, blocked me on her devices, and issued her an ultimatum – choose between him or me – using the flimsy pretext that my suicidal ideation was bad for her “brand” to convince her not only to ghost me, but to steal my earnings.
As if Adam Lee Wasserman’s extensive criminal record and history of incarceration(s) – which are bound to come out at trial following his two recent arrests (for assault and obstructing police) – is a better look for Caryma’s “influencer” brand.
Instead of tying up loose ends and paying me what she owed me, like a normal person would do following a year-long working relationship with a close friend and investor in her “brand”, Caryma ghosted me and kept all the donations we were going to split. Meanwhile, Adam Lee published a nasty, defamatory blog about me that breached solicitor-client confidentiality. Their rabid fans attacked, harassed, and threatened me on social media, feeding into the same lies that Mitch is now spreading.
After all this, don’t blame me for being extra touchy about being accused of shit I haven’t done.
After everything I endured in the last two years, I’ll be damned if I let Michelle “Mitch” Hancock paint me as some crazy, obsessed wannabe ex-lover who Caryma needs to be protection from – when in fact my own safety is on the line.
If anyone needs protection, I need protection from Caryma and Adam Lee Wasserman – an ex-convict whose criminal history disturbs me and adds to my safety concerns. An ex-con who told me to my face that he wanted to “take out” one of their enemies. An impulsive, obsessive man driven by an unquenchable thirst for revenge - as Caryma told me in a 2023 text message, “Revenge is just a garnish for me. Lee could make it the whole course.”
Back in 2022-2023, I felt sorry for “Mitch”. She came across like a lonely Twitter fan, seemingly always the first in line to buy whatever tee-shirt or baseball cap Caryma was selling for $60 – an exorbitant amount for someone on ODSP to spend on what I perceived as a celebrity crush. In my eyes, she reeked of desperation to meet her idol. I recall reading tweets about her showing up at some Ford-fest event, hoping to run into Caryma. If memory serves me right, Caryma and Adam Lee didn’t respond to her DMs and cleared out of there before Mitch could catch up with them.
I don’t believe they met in person until well after Adam blocked me and Caryma decided to defraud me. This prompted quips from anonymous trolls that the duo had simply swapped one lesbian with another.
Whether Mitch may be valiantly attacking me to ingratiate herself with Caryma and score extra pats from Adam, or whether Caryma and/or Adam encouraged these wrong assumptions as a way to discredit me – arguably, turning her into a Donald Smith or MaryAnn Watson 2.0 – is not important.
What’s important is to ensure that lies have consequences.