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The price of tweeting has never been higher for Chelsea Hillier.
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A judge has ordered the former provincial candidate, the daughter of former MPP member Randy Hillier, to pay $97,000 for defaming her former Carleton University instructor in a series of malicious tweets that falsely accused the longtime educator. as a sexual predator who drugged students.
Ontario Superior Court Judge Sally Gomery included $10,000 in punitive damages for using her Twitter accounts as weapons.
“Hillier’s apparent glee at the damage he was doing to a former friend is sad and outrageous. He used her Twitter accounts as weapons for vindictive and vengeful behavior. I am particularly disturbed by his repeated publication of Post’s wedding photos along with his false and defamatory statements, his use of hashtags to spread his statements as widely as possible, and his exploitation of personal information obtained in confidence from a former friend.” Gomery ruled.
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The judge also ordered Hillier to remove all posts about Ester Post and is prohibited from posting any false or derogatory comments about Post.
Post, who has taught courses in the English department for 18 years, said the malicious tweets left her humiliated, shocked and hurt, according to her affidavit filed in the defamation lawsuit.
Hillier met Post when she took undergraduate English courses in 2008. They became such close friends that Hillier was at Post’s wedding party in 2014.
But their friendship began to fall apart in 2020 over political differences. Things took a turn for the worse in November after the Carleton instructor tweeted a thread criticizing hospital anti-vaccine protests and other tactics backed by Hillier and his father polarizing him.
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In what the judge called a malicious campaign to harass Post and silence him, Hillier’s tweetstorm portrayed the instructor as a predator, a gaslighter and an abuser.
“Can’t stand the heat? Leave. Do you want to fuck with my family? I’ll fuck with yours,” Hillier tweeted on Nov. 11.
Some of the responses to Hillier’s tweets also shocked the Post, including comparisons to American actress Amber Heard and an American teacher convicted of aggravated rape of a 12-year-old student.
Although Post also apologized, the judge saw no point “in forcing Hillier to publish a statement expressing false regret and disingenuous acknowledgment of the harm he has inflicted. Doing so may do more harm than good, as it could prompt his supporters to launch more invective at Post.”
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“As this entire episode shows, Post shouldn’t expect to get a rational or compassionate response from the Twitterverse. Her vindication is this sentence and a retraction,” the judge ruled.
Hillier has refused to post a retraction or apology. Instead, the judge noted, Hillier has doubled down on posting defamatory statements about Post since he received a defamation notice.
Hillier did not defend himself in the lawsuit, and the judge granted a default order.
It’s also not known if Post will ever get the $97,000 back.
“There is a real possibility that Post may not be able to recover some or all of the damages awarded, based on Hillier’s repeated claim, on social media, that he is short of funds,” the judge said in a decision published on 24 of June.
Hillier ran unsuccessfully in last month’s provincial election for the Lanark-Frontenac-Kingston seat previously held by his father.
