A 67-year-old Edmonton man charged with wilful promotion of hatred in connection with the operation of multiple hate-based websites has died.
Alberta Justice confirmed the charge against Barry Winters will be stayed via a written direction from the Crown to the courthouse.
Alberta Justice would not confirm the cause of Winters’ death.
Winters was arrested on June 1, following an investigation that began in June 2016. Police said the Hate Crimes Unit launched the investigation following multiple complaints related to allegedly hateful content published across several websites.
READ MORE: Edmonton police charge man with wilful promotion of hatred due to blog posts
The websites included daily posts that used strong, hate-based rhetoric that targeted various communities, according to Edmonton police. Some posts allegedly alluded to violent threats and harm against specific individuals.
“Basically, Winters had several blogs which he was authoring stories and derogatory words and comments towards certain individuals, political leaders,” Sgt. Gary Willits with the EPS Hate Crimes Unit said in June.
“Some of these messages including wishing harm on the individuals and promoting, in some cases, wishing death upon them and promoting that they be killed.”
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Watch below: Sgt. Gary Willits with the EPS Hate Crimes Unit speaks about the accused’s blog and following.
Winters was the author of a blog called The Baconfat Chronicles, which has since been taken down. More than 600 posts were published when it was active targeting Muslims, First Nations, Palestinians, politicians, women, bullying victim Rehtaeh Parsons, victims of sexual abuse, media, the homeless and those living with mental illness and addictions.
“Every community that you could think of. He went from political figures to certain races, genders to sexual orientation,” Willits said in June.
Kris Wells is the faculty director with the University of Alberta’s Institute for Sexual Minority Studies & Services and LGBTQ advocate. He was also a complainant in the case.
“I think it’s very sad when anyone passes away but for someone to die with so much hate in their heart, that’s the real tragedy in this story,” he said.
Wells is disappointed the case won’t be seen in court.
“There will be really no closure or resolution on this case,” he said.
“We want this to have its day in court to send a strong message to others who would propagate hate that you can’t hide behind your keyboards, you can’t pretend to be anonymous, that this kind of rhetoric has deep and meaningful consequences, not only to individuals but to entire communities and to the very social fabric of our city and province.”
The charge against Winters will be stayed before Aug. 4, which was when the 67-year-old was scheduled to appear in court.
Watch below: Marni Panas, an Edmonton LGBTQ advocate, was one of the people mentioned on the website. Said she was mortified by the comments she read on the website.
With files from Quinn Ohler and Karen Bartko, Global News.
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