Victory vs anti-Harper rally, Part 2: U.S. funded LeadNow not happy with ITW exposure

LeadNow LNC brochure-front. Click to download entire brochure.

Front of LeadNow brochure handed out by LeadNow volunteer at the event in which they claim they did not participate. Click to download PDF of both sides.

Canadian LeadNow organization denies participation in Hamas-supporter David Heap’s anti-Harper event… but facts and pics show otherwise…

UPDATE, Oct 7/15: A source has sent Israel Truth Week a copy of minutes for a January 2015 meeting attended by David Heap, Council of Canadians, NDP candidate for London North Centre German Gutierez and… two LeadNow organizers. Keep this in mind as you’re reading the denial of involvement by LeadNow’s Eastern Field Organizer below.
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Israel Truth Week is pleased to say that our effort in having an anti-Harper rally in London, Ontario relocated off the grounds of the Western Fair District (WFD) Farmer’s Market not only resulted in a pitifully small display of anti-Harper venom due to a lack of traffic from market visitors, but also attracted the attention of the large, U.S.-funded (in part) Canadian leftist activist organization LeadNow (leadnow.ca).

LeadNow is actively engaged in strategic vote-splitting campaigns in various Conservative ridings across Canada, including London North Centre where Susan Truppe is the sitting MP — where the Heap rally was being held.

LeadNow was very disturbed about their organization being mentioned in ITW’s last article that exposed how David Heap and company misled the WFD about their rally being non-partisan, and our success in having it moved off WFD grounds. Their ‘Eastern Field Organizer’ Corrigan Hammond sent ITW founder Mark Vandermaas an email asking him to correct “a number of factual inaccuracies.”

They claimed they had nothing to do with the event and so, they couldn’t understand why they they were even included in the story. You can read LeadNow’s email and Mark’s replies below, but here’s the picture that exposes that lie:

The woman on the left is wearing a purple LeadNow shirt. She approached ITW’s Mark Vandermaas, handed him a LeadNow brochure, and asked him to sign a vote pledge for LeadNow’s strategic voting campaign against the Conservative candidate in London North Centre. But, LeadNow later claimed they did not participate in the event. The woman to the right is holding a handmade sign with the LeadNow name that is referring to LeadNow’s strategic voting pledge campaign.

More pictures…

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ITW Email to LeadNow Eastern Field Organizer, Corrigan Hammond

(ITW founder Mark Vandermaas replies in red)

From: Mark Vandermaas – Israel Truth Week <mark@israeltruthweek.org>
Sent: Sun 27/09/2015 1:38 AM

Hi Corrigan,

Thanks for the polite letter. Seriously.

Although I oppose your position(s), I do take care to be accurate. This isn’t my first rodeo; I spent 6+ years working full time fighting racial policing in Caledonia where we went up against some vicious lying bullies led by a guy out of York U, and we had to work with media. We had a reputation for telling the truth. I’m aggressive, but I try to be careful and factual in what I write, and I apologize when I’m wrong (doesn’t happen often).

I’ve reviewed my story and I found one error that you didn’t mention that I’ve fixed, and I’ve included some quotes from your email regarding your key point. I’ll address your points 1 by 1 in red below…

Regards,
Mark

Mark Vandermaas, Founder
Israel Truth Week (www.IsraelTruthWeek.org)
341 Talbot Street, Suite 102
London, Ontario, CANADA N6A 2R5
519.457.0709

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From: Corrigan Hammond [mailto:xxx@leadnow.ca]
Sent: September-26-15 10:49 PM
To: mark@israeltruthweek.org
Subject: Please correct Sept 24th post

Hi Mark,

I’m the regional organizer working on the http://www.VoteTogether.ca campaign in London North Centre.

You recently published the following article (https://israeltruthweek.wordpress.com/2015/09/24/victory-against-planned-anti-harper-rally-at-western-fair-district-in-london-ontario-maybe/) that contains a number of factual inaccuracies that I would like you to please correct:

1. We did not participate in nor organize the Sept 25th event on the Western Fair Grounds. The organizer of the event did not notify our organization that this event was even happening. David Heap is not an organizer, spokesperson or volunteer on our campaign. I’ve never met him. Whenever we have held events in the city of London we have worked with venues to ensure they are away of the nature of our campaign and that we are compliant with all applicable rules, laws and municipal regulations.

[MARK]a. I never said you participated in or organized the event. I said it was organized by David Heap and ‘hosted’ by the Council of Canadians.

b. Having said that… if you didn’t participate in the event and didn’t know the event was happening how was it that I was approached by a very nice older lady wearing a LeadNow T-shirt [SEE WOMAN WEARING PURPLE SHIRT W/WHITE SLEEVES IN ABOVE PHOTO] who wanted me to sign a vote pledge AND she gave me a card entitled ‘Want Harper Out? Let’s VOTETOGETHER.’ [LINK] Clearly, your organization knew about the event and participated in the event because a volunteer went there to collect vote pledges and hand out your literature in direct support of the event’s anti-Harper goals.

c. My statement was that Heap’s event was clearly meant to build on your campaign to unseat Susan Truppe, a conclusion that was justifiable based on the fact that it was to take place in the middle of your current canvassing campaign between Sept-Oct 1 (I’ll tell you where I got that from below).

d. I’m glad you obey the rules.

Why we’re mentioned in this article is, frankly, beyond me?

[MARK]You’re kidding me, right?

a. The card I got from your volunteer was printed specifically for London North Centre.

b. You’re engaged in a concerted effort to unseat the sitting MP for that riding because she is a Conservative.

c. Heap’s rally had exactly the same goal in exactly the same riding. You personally may not know Heap or someone from the Council of Canadians (I find that hard to believe), but someone who works for you does. There’s a concept in agency law that says the principal is responsible for what the agent does and knows. In other words, if someone in your org knows and does something on your behalf, you are deemed to have knowledge of it and responsibility for it. When your volunteer attended the rally and participated in its goals she was representing you.

Item (b) alone is enough to have justified including you in the story.

2. Why did you say Vote Together is a targeted campaign between Sept 24-Oct 1st? That notion is ridiculous and absolutely false. Vote Together is a targeted campaign that began in 2013 and continues until Oct 19th. I’ve personally been working on Vote Together in London since May and would appreciate credit where credit is due…

[MARK]“Ridiculously false”? You say this like I just pulled the dates out of thin air and fabricated the statement.

You publish your events on your website 5 at a time for each riding you’re targeting with old events dropping off as the dates pass. The current events for this targeted riding are right here: http://www.votetogether.ca/riding/35052/london-north-centre/ . At the time I published the story, the time period I cited was completely accurate. How am I to know how many dates before and after you published the ones I initially saw there are? Even if I did, the statement is accurate; you had a five day campaign set out.

As for giving you ‘credit’…I’m not your cheerleader.

3. The quotes below your description of our Vote Together campaign do not come from us; could you please clarify where they come from and properly attribute those remarks to the correct party.

[MARK] I didn’t say they came from you. It’s pretty clear that the quotes are in relation to the rally which I said was organized by Heap and company, and the link is right in the first paragraph.

4. Our Vote Together campaign is 100% Canadian funded.

[MARK] I didn’t say your campaign was funded by the US. I said your organization was funded with help from U.S. lobby groups. What part of that isn’t true?

5. “Leadnow” is not spelled with a capital N.

[MARK] You can spell it the way you want; when I’m writing it I’m not going to confuse readers by beginning a proper noun with a lower case letter. Sorry.

In the future, if you’re writing about Vote Together, please feel free to give me a shout or fire off an email first — even if your readership doesn’t agree with our campaign, aren’t they entitled to factually correct and credible information about us? I’d have the courtesy to do the same if I was writing about your publication.

[MARK] Thanks for the offer; if I need to verify any facts I’ll let you know. Feel free to contact me, too. 🙂

6. [MARK] The one error I made was in describing VoteTogether in a manner that made it appear as a separate organization; I’ve fixed that now. https://israeltruthweek.wordpress.com/2015/09/24/victory-against-planned-anti-harper-rally-at-western-fair-district-in-london-ontario-maybe/

7. [MARK] Despite believing I was clear enough about the quotes from Heap’s FB page, I’ve also added some quotes from your email along with a link to your LNC strategic voting page.

Thanks for taking time to write.

Regards,
Mark

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Kindest regards,

Corrigan Hammond
Eastern Field Organizer, Leadnow
http://www.leadnow.ca

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Small actions can create big results

We often think we need large organizations and enormous effort to make a difference; with just 2 emails and 1 voicemail message, Israel Truth Week was able to:

Force the relocation of an anti-Harper rally planned by a Hamas supporter to a busy corner which denied the organizers exposure to foot traffic at the market. This left them with a total of about 25 attendees, including organizers/volunteers, to whom they could preach their anti-Conservative, anti-oil vitriol.
Attract the attention of the huge LeadNow operation which was so upset they felt compelled to try to do damage control by denying linkage to the event and its negative publicity. No one kicks a dead dog, so we are very pleased with their attention.

We CAN make a difference; we just have to show up!

Mozuud.org – an activist/petition organization you can really support!

“The MOZUUD Freedom Foundation was launched in early 2015 to help unite people around the world to speak with one powerful voice on important issues, whether they are local, regional, national or international.”

In 2014, ITW’s founder Mark Vandermaas was invited to consult for a brand new activist/petition organization that was specifically created to take up the causes that the big leftist, anti-Israel, anti-conservative organizations like LeadNow.org and Avaaz.org don’t touch, and to counter some of the causes they do get involved with. Their executive director, Geoffrey Clarfield, has a world of experience in the non-profit sector and he’s regularly published in media outlets such as the National Post.

You won’t find any anti-Harper or anti-Israel campaigns here, but you will find petitions against the Iran appeasement deal that sold out the Jewish people to genocidal terrorists, and a petition to support victims of ISIS such as the Yazidis who have suffered so much. Mozuud has been instrumental in helping activists to give a voice to these beleagered people.

Whether it’s elephants being killed by poachers, the Armenian genocide, or the close relationship the Mufti of Jerusalem had with Hitler, Mozuud is there…and they’re just getting started!

Do freedom a favour and join up simply by adding your name to any of the good causes they’re working on!