Woman gives up quest for answers to alleged Internet hijacking
TORONTO — A woman whose name was dragged into a human rights hearing at which federal investigators admitted to planting messages on a white supremacist website said Friday she may never know why her Internet account was identified as a source of the postings.
Nelly Hechme said she had encountered “too many roadblocks” in trying to get answers about the apparent hijacking of her wireless connection.
“I am not one to fight hard; I merely wanted some answers and maybe a little justice but that doesn’t seem to be the case,” Hechme said from Ottawa.
“I feel like I’m basically being told to just accept it.”
Hechme was stunned last spring when her name was brought up at a long-running hate case against Toronto resident Marc Lemire.
Evidence by Bell Canada before the Canadian Human Rights Tribunal indicated that Hechme’s Internet account had been used by a “Jadewarr” to post hate messages during an investigation into far-right websites.
An investigator for the Canadian Human Rights Commission admitted to using the pseudonym “Jadewarr” but said the rights agency had no connection to Hechme, who lived near the commission’s offices.
On Thursday, the federal privacy commissioner dropped Hechme’s complaint, saying it found no evidence her privacy rights were breached.
It found no evidence the agency hijacked her Internet connection and also suggested a simple “mismatch” could have been behind the naming of her secured wireless Internet account at the hearing.
Lemire was critical of the privacy commissioner’s investigation and said he was dismayed by the result.
“There was absolutely no mismatch,” Lemire said.
“I showed the evidence to the Human Rights Tribunal, and it was compelling enough to issue me a subpoena.”
Lemire said the information provided by the Stormfront website about the origins of the “Jadewarr” hate posting turned out “to all be accurate.”
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