BC harasser who tried to extort Kelowna orchardists is no-show in court

A BC blogger with a history of extortion tried to get money out of a Kelowna orchardist family and still remains unaccounted for more than six months after a judge issued a warrant for his arrest.

According to Dec. 11 BC Supreme Court decision, Daryl Grant MacAskill failed to show up to his latest court hearing, but did send an email saying he wanted “to make a deal” with the Sandher family to remove blogs he’d written about them.

“Next court appearance WILL cost the Sandhers $50k+, and it is guaranteed to change not a thing. Not a thing,” MacAskill wrote in an email. “Tell these sickening MFers to make me an offer to remove everything.”

MacAskill’s tactic follows a lengthy history of writing fictitious blogs about people and then hitting them up for money.

“(Some evidence) suggests that Mr. MacAskill was driven not by the pursuit of the truth, but instead to extort money from the (Sandhers),” Justice John Gibb-Carsley said in the decision. “Further, despite making and spreading these unproven claims, Mr. MacAskill refuses to participate in the court process or comply with court orders and instead continues to hide in the shadows of the internet.”

MacAskill writes blogs under the name Ace Ventura on his website Gangsterism Out.

He has a lengthy history of harassment, defamation, and extortion, and in the spring of 2024, turned his sights on the family who own the Sandher Fruit Packers.

He falsely accuses the family of everything from international terrorism to producing chemical weapons at their Kelowna orchard.

In August 2024, the family sued MacAskill for defamation.

However, the serial harasser, who was once jailed for fraud, has refused to remove the blogs and has carried on his smear campaign.

In May, Justice Gibb-Carsley issued a warrant for arrest after he failed to follow court orders.

It made no difference, and MacAskill continued to write about the family and then took aim at the judges and court staff.

“I was presented evidence of him distributing and posting numerous unsupported and negative statements regarding a Justice of this Court, court staff, the (Sandher family’s) former lawyer and the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Canada,” the Justice said.

“There are vile, offensive comments made regarding the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Canada and the (Sandher family’s) former counsel. Further, Mr. MacAskill has published what appear to be surreptitious pictures taken of one of the court registry staff at the courthouse during work hours in conjunction with his unsupported allegations.”

In August 2024, after iNFOnews.ca published a story about his lengthy history of harassment and extortion. Following the story, he took aim at iNFOnews.ca and wrote blogs about its reporters, owner and senior management.

Little is known about who MacAskill is, only that he’s in his early 60s and has luanched numerous online campaigns against individuals over the last two decades.

He collects his mail from a mental health charity office in Vancouver, and was found to be living in a homeless camp in Burnaby several years ago. The current court decision said he may have moved to Ontario.

One BC businessman who successfully sued MacAskill for $190,000 for defamation described him as like a “drunk in a bar fight” trying to destroy everyone.

In the Sandhers’ case, Justice Gibb-Carsley said MacAskill’s conduct amounted to an abuse of process.

“Put simply, Mr. MacAskill has fallen so far below the standards expected of litigants both in his compliance with the Rules and by acting in a manner that constitutes an abuse of the Court’s process that he should be disentitled from continuing to defend against this proceeding,” the Justice said.

The Justice said his court filing contained “inadmissible hearsay, inadmissible opinion evidence, subjective descriptions, reactions, opinions regarding motive, speculation, argument, irrelevant information, and… what appears to be manifestly false evidence.”

The Justice said that due to MacAskill’s behaviour, he wouldn’t allow him to continue with the litigation.

“The number of continued breaches and the increasing vitriol in his posts gives me no confidence that, if given a chance, he will conduct himself differently in the future,” the Justice said.

The Justice said MacAskill’s conduct warranted special costs to be awarded against him, although the amount would be decided at a later date.

“Without question free speech is a cornerstone of a free and democratic society. People are entitled to express their opinions and their concerns regarding their personal views of others and events in the world. However, there are limits to that expression,” the Justice said.