stockhouse posters to be identified for slander Midpoint's Ivany wins order for Stockhouse users
by Mike Caswell
A judge in the Supreme Court of British Columbia has ordered Stockhouse Publishing Ltd. to identify a pair of users that accused Vancouver promoter Derek Ivany of being part of a "notorious thug crew," among other things. Mr. Ivany complained that the users wrote material that was clearly defamatory. He had no way of identifying them, as they posted using aliases.
The order, handed down on Jan. 6, 2022, directs Stockhouse to provide identifying information for the users "TheTexan" and "bogdansz." The information is to include names, addresses, phone numbers, e-mails, payment information or anything else that might provide the identities of the users. The judge also ordered Stockhouse to hand over the IP addresses of the users. Those addresses are unique identifiers that can lead to the users' physical locations.
Mr. Ivany previously set out the details of the posts in a petition he filed at the Vancouver courthouse on Nov. 26, 2021. He said that the two users were behind a string of messages that he first noticed in mid-2021. Among other things, the messages accused him of running a pump-and-dump with Agra Ventures Ltd., a Canadian Securities Exchange listing, he complained.
(Mr. Ivany does not appear to have any role at Agra in its present form, but he was president of its predecessor, Agraflora Organics International Inc., until he resigned on May 21, 2019. The stock had an 86-cent high in the months leading up to his departure. It has since rolled back 1:150 and was last at 54 cents.)
Another post quoted in the petition stated that Joseph Mengele would be "proud" of Mr. Ivany. (Josef Mengele was a Nazi doctor called the "Angel of Death." He performed medical experiments on concentration camp prisoners and operated the gas chambers used in those camps. After the war he fled Germany for Argentina, and drowned in 1979.) Other posts that Mr. Ivany complained of stated that he was a con artist of "epic proportions" and that he participated in money laundering schemes.
With the court order allowing Mr. Ivany to identify the posters, he could be in a position to file a lawsuit over the material. He could also demand an apology. Vancouver lawyer Patrick Sullivan of Whitelaw Twining Law Corp. filed the petition on Mr. Ivany's behalf.
Mr. Ivany's present job is as the president of Midpoint Holdings Ltd., a TSX Venture Exchange listing that operates a currency exchange website. The stock closed at 20.5 cents Thursday, unchanged.
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