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  • Our mass media fans the fires of ignorance.

    I am not a pedophile contrary to what for decades has been stated in millions of anonymous street flyers posted around the City of Toronto.

    I am someone who has a long established history of standing up both for myself and others while all levels of Government have shown and continue to show appalling apathy.

    This week when a young UofT student was slandered by the man who has been slandering myself and many others for over twenty-four years (as reported in THE GLOBE AND MAIL) I got no reply from the Office of Toronto Mayor Olivia Chow.

    I left a message on the phone of my Councillor Dianne Saxe.

    When, to my surprise I got a return call (the first time that has happened) the person speaking with me hung up.

    Artists historically have always played a vital role when dealing with the apathy evidenced by not only Mayor Chow and Councillor Saxe but also by all levels of government from the highest to the lowest.

    When the people running the country either do not know the law or choose to ignore it we must.

    When Crown attorneys are more interested in getting a conviction than in  seeking justice we must be concerned with justice.

    When the media as almost a whole is more interested in whetting the emotional appetites of the public (fanning the fires of public hysteria) we must take on the role of putting those fires out.

    When the person spreading anonymous slander about myself and others was first arrested he told the police he had once lived with me (true) and that he moved because I was showing films in which teenagers were sexually abused (SALO by Pier Paolo Passolini which is available from every library in Toronto).

    He told the police I was making and distributing child pornography.

    On May 22nd of that year (2018) the police arrived in force at my door with a warrant which stated that on March 18, 2018 child pornography had been downloaded to my IP address.

    What struck me about that date was that only once in the many years people have come to my programs has anyone asked to access the internet.

    That once was March 18, 2018.

    I am not the first person to be set up. I will not be the last.

    I am not the first person to be a target of hate. I am not the first person (nor will I be the last) to have irresponsible journalists report on their issue.

    We, you and I and every person has a legal right in Canada to possess child pornography if our use of that material is legitimate. We also have the right to possess it if our use of it is not harmful to anyone under 18.

    In the 1970s at Toronto’s ROCHDALE COLLEGE I showed hardcore pornographic films at a time when doing that was generally believed to be illegal.

    A journalist asked to speak with me. He said, “You are doing something important.”

    Later however the police called to inform me he asked them why I had not been raided.

    I was not raided because the showing of that material was only illegal if an admission was charged.

    No one was charged an admission fee at those programs.

    Over a few beers in her home my friend, mentor Jane Jacobs said to me of the copy of THE TORONTO STAR spread out before her, “I hate that paper.”

    I don’t hate THE STAR. I understand why she did.

    On page after page I see uninformed writers informing a public that trusts them because they believe those writers know what they are writing about.

    As for THE TORONTO SUN, anyone who takes it seriously can’t be taken seriously.

    Know the law.

    Why?

    Because when we are targeted by the media for what is going to be a medieval public shaming we had better know that we are innocent.

    I do not hate THE STAR as Jane Jacobs did.

    It is impossible however to have nothing but contempt for it despite the fact that while the paper ha shad and continues to have some exceptionally fine writers in general it seems their editors do not give a damn.

    I was asked by the Court if I wanted a publication ban.

    THE SUN chose to ignore that ban.

    My then lawyer told me THE STAR had asked him if they could talk with me. He had given them permission. On his advice I did.

    He should NEVER have done that.

    The only person charged with ignoring the publication ban was myself.

    I got intensely angry with the person who called me from Councillor Dianne Saxe’s office.

    Why?

    His apathy.

    I should not be the only one furious about that.

    It seems I am.

    “The media’s the most powerful entity on earth. They have the power to make the innocent guilty and to make the guilty innocent, and that’s power. Because they control the minds of the masses.” ― Malcolm X

    Ed Keenan, of THE STAR, said to me, “Reg Hartt, you are the only man in Toronto who stands up.”

    Took me awhile to realize that statement means Ed does not.

    This city had only one councillor who answered his phones.

    This city had only one Mayor who answered his phones.

    This city had only one person in office who was not apathetic.

    That man was pilloried in the media.

    His name was Rob Ford.

    Vilify him if you will.

    He answered the call.

    The best thing than happen in this city is that THE TORONTO STAR and THE TORONTO SUN cease publication.

    Both papers are losing readers perhaps because the readers they are losing are more aware than either paper realized.

    Know the law.

    Be informed.

    When the police came to my door I was looking into an occurrence in Europe where the children of mothers who had been sent to prison after being out in the custody of the state were then used as sex slaves in a huge ring by those who were supposed to be caring for them.

    Who was using them as sex slaves? The police were. Judges were. Members of the clergy were. Celebrities were. Politics were. Government officials were. Business people were.

    I had to work hard to keep from laughing when the Judge told me I should let the police handle these matters.

    Jane Jacobs said, “At the top there is a very high level of mediocrity.”

    Why am I interested in this.

    The man I met my second night in Toronto in January 1964 told me the man who had helped me the first night was a bad person.

    He said he would help me.

    When we got to his home he said, “There is a bed in the basement.”

    When I got to the bottom of a very narrow stairwell he said, “Turn around.”

    When I turned around I saw him standing in the door blocking my exist with a raised hammer in his hand.

    He said, “Give me what I want or I will kill you.”

    Why am I interested.

    Because I have been where those children are.

    No one at THE STAR or THE SUN has.

    Those uniformed writers are murderers.

    A lie kills the person who speaks it. It can kill (and too often does) the person it is spoken of. Unless they take a stand against it, a lie kills those who hear it.

    I seem to be the only person taking a stand in Toronto.

    Too bad.

    Meanwhile THE TORONTO POLICE seem to have chosen to believe a liar and a murderer.

    What am I going to do?

    I am going to do what I am called to do.

    Vengeance is God’s. I am called to deny nothing, stand up, speak up and be still.

    I have stood up.

    I have spoken.

    I am still.

    I tried to give the police, city authorities and others all the material I have documented on this.

    They refuse to accept it.

    One of the millions of anonymous flyers slandering me asked, “WHAT WOULD JANE JACOBS DO ABOUT REG HARTT’S CHILD PORN CHARGES?”

    She would do what she did in New York when Robert Moses set out to gut the city in the name of public good, she would do what she did in Toronto when she got here and discovered the city about to be gutted, she would do were she here now when the Ontario Science Centre is being gutted.

    She would raise Hell.

    Ironically the slanderer is now using Jane Jacobs on his flyers offering used bikes.

    Allegedly, based on info from his many ex-employees, those bikes are stolen however THE STAR and THE SUN are silent about that.

    THE STAR and THE SUN can be counted upon for silence unless a big name can be brought low as with Alice Munro.

    What happened to her daughter is terrible.

    More terrible is that what happened to the daughter was kept from the mother at the moment it was most important that she hear it

    Olivia Chow and Dianne Saxe are good people. Information is being kept from them by their staffers which they need to hear..

    They need to know that this week a young twenty something UofT student was slandered viciously with statements meant to get him murdered.

    The media needs to cease reporting on cases before the courts until after the verdict is in.

    Otherwise they are no better than the lynch mobs that in the famous Billy Holiday song sung Strange Fruit upon the tree: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Web007rzSOI

    However, by the Power of God I am raised from the dead.

    THE LORD said to me, :Thank you for trusting me.”

    I said, “Thank you for believing in me when no one did.”

    FATHER said, “I created you for this purpose. You are my beloved son with whom I am well pleased. Go and bear witness to the good things I have done for you. If they give you any deadly thing, it will not harm you. You shall handle serpents.* Lay your hands on the sick and they will recover .”

    –Reg Hartt

    *Serpents means children of the serpent: liars and murders and those who believe them.

    This is a list of the top fifty male speakers of all time. No one from THE STAR or THE SUN is on this list. No one from the offices of Mayor Chow or Councillor Saxe is on this list. I am on it which is wildly ironic in this city where the people in power and in the media think no one is interested in what I am saying.

    https://www.ranker.com/list/famous-male-orators/reference

    Jane Jacobs loved Reg Hartt. People like Mayor Chow and Councillor Saxe should think about why she loved Reg Hartt.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YonLUG7gRyY . 

    “I honestly believe Reg Hartt is the greatest teacher I know.”—Emo Philips

    “Reg Hartt has had an amazing impact given the size of the venue and the esoteric nature of the programming. He’s had an incredible impact on the city. No one else is doing it. No one else has ever done it.”–Rob Salem.

    “REG HARTT is what living in a metropolis is all about. He personifies the city as a meeting place of ideas, as a feast of experience and discussion and debate, as a triumph over the banal and soporific of the original and provoking.”—Michael Valpy, THE GLOBE AND MAIL

    ““Reg Hartt teaches like Neal Cassady drove a bus.”—Joe Fiorito. https://www.thestar.com/news/gta/2010/09/15/fiorito_we_gotta_have_hartt.html

    “REG HARTT is what living in a metropolis is all about. He personifies the city as a meeting place of ideas, as a feast of experience and discussion and debate, as a triumph of the original and provoking over the banal and soporific.”—Michael Valpy, THE GLOBE & MAIL

    Toronto Mayor Rob Ford recently came to the rescue of Reg Hartt, an individual who had run afoul of the law. Hartt’s violation? As explained by city authorities, he was illicitly running “a place of assembly.” Hartt’s actual crime? He is a non-conformist in a city that makes just about all commercial activities illegal, including those in the home, unless some city bureaucrat says otherwise.

    Hartt has been a credit to Toronto for decades. His Cineforum, which screens noteworthy films for small study groups in his living room, has long won acclaim from critics in Canada and abroad and endorsements from Canadian icons such as author Pierre Berton and urban guru Jane Jacobs.  Lonely Planet lists 463 Bathurst St, his modest abode on a major Toronto thoroughfare, as among the top 30 sights to see in Toronto and in the top 30 of sights to see in Ontario. That’s quite a credit to the city. Yet although neighbours don’t complain, the city’s Municipal Licensing and Standards department periodically shuts him down.

    Lawrence Solomon: Jane Jacobs rules as Ford strikes a blow for film freedom | National Post

    A city that sees value in rules, but no value in letting Reg Hartt bend them, has no right to claim Jane Jacobs’ legacy, writes Edward Keenan.
    https://www.thestar.com/news/gta/2016/06/27/cineforum-deserves-a-happy-ending-to-its-saga-keenan.html

    The city should drop its misguided fight against Reg Hartt…
    https://www.thestar.com/opinion/editorials/2016/06/28/the-city-should-leave-cineforum-alone-editorial.html

    “I am a friend of Reg Hartt.
    “So is anyone who can appreciate a man who teaches the way Neal Cassady drove a bus.
    “I mean that, where you have style wrapped around content and tied with a ribbon of beat improvisation, there you have angels.
    “Harvey Pekar was an angel.
    “And I’ve never met anyone with wings who did not have an ego. Nor is this an easy town for a man who is larger than life, and does not care to suffer fools.
    “You might like to know that the friends of Reg Hartt included the non-fool-suffering Jane Jacobs, who knew a thing or two about what, and who, makes life worth living in the city; that’s good enough for me. His philosophy as a teacher of film? “My programs are designed for people without money.” Yeah, but how does he earn enough to pay the rent? “The Lord said, ‘I will take care of you.’ The I Ching says the same thing.” A long time since I met anyone who throws those bones.

    The city will do what it will.

    And you will permit me an observation: if Martin Sheen can come to town and stand on the picket line with striking hotel workers, why won’t our senior cineastes stand up for Reg Hartt, as the city moves to strike him down?
    https://www.thestar.com/news/gta/2010/09/15/fiorito_we_gotta_have_hartt.html

    https://reghartt.ca/cineforum/?p=33438

    Paul McGrath, THE GLOBE AND MAIL
    Some audience members were visibly distressed by the frequency and force of Hartt’s interjections into the program but it is clearly his chosen way of doing things, and the payoff in information is worth it. He has many good stories to tell: about Oswald the Lucky Rabbit’s transformation into Mickey Mouse, Disney’s most enduring character; about the furor that greeted the creation of Tweety Pie, which subsided only when the artists painted him yellow; and much valuable technical information for the animation students. He has some interesting tales about Mel Blanc, Warners’ resident genius of voice characterization, as he continues the series with a full scale look at the Warner work of Chuck Jones, Bob Clampett, Friz Freleng, and others. It’s the best work of its kind you will see anywhere because, except in rare oases in the United States and Eastern-Europe, they don’t make them like that anymore.

    JULIA SCUTARU, retired journalist, Bucharest, Romania: “In Toronto, I discovered by chance, Cineforum. Pure chance but a fortunate one. In that small room exhaling culture, passion and dedication, I watched the movie TRIUMPH OF THE WILL, an important historical, political and social document., and real artistic achievement….As a journalist (in Romania) I worked in the cultural field, including film reviews. Therefore I came to the Cineforum not just as a movie lover, but as a knowledgeable professional…We live in an era authoritatively dominated by brainwashing and political correctness…I admired Reg Hartt’s courage and passion put in searching out and defending the human truth, the artistic truth, the historical truth; the Truth and unveiling it…Discovering Reg Hartt and his Cineforum was one of the most important events of my visit in Toronto.”

    DAVID BEARD, owner CINEBOOKS, quoted in THE TORONTO STAR, Nov. l, l979
    “This man has devoted his whole life to bringing the film classics to the public. He treats animation-cartoons, if you will-as art. He is underfinanced, overworked and snubbed. I think we should pay tribute to him.

    GREG WILLIAMS, MA (Ph, D. Candidate), President, University College Film Society, and Chairman of the Subcommittee for film, U. C. Symposium: I wish we had more time to chat together last night about our respective (and mutual) interests in film.
    ‘Cineforum’ has attained the status of an institution; it represents an achievement of which you should rightly feel proud.

    “I can only hope the ‘University College Film Society’ will someday approximate its success and that I will, personally, match your inspired delivery as a master of ceremonies.

    “As a newcomer to the business of arranging film programs, so far I am your equal perhaps only in enthusiasm. Thus I find your presentations to be not only exceptional in their content but also edifying in their execution. As an academic (in the field of English) I am also impressed by the high scholarly standard that pervades your informed and witty introductions,

    “I frequently wonder if you have ever considered writing a history…some very good books have been written…but no text has dealt with it in a definitive way. A marshaling of your knowledge would, I am certain, produce a very fine volume indeed.”

    DOUGLAS ELIUK, education officer NATIONAL FILM BOARD OF CANADA, formerly Canada’s Cultural Attache to America. “(REG) Hartt is acknowledged as a phenomenon in the film community. He is someone who does not rely on government grants, subsidies or institutional protection to generate his film activities. He depends entirely on his intelligence, talent and resourcefulness. His events are produced with care and good sense, in a clean and friendly atmosphere and with an almost avuncular consideration for his fans, As a film officer for the National Film Board of Canada for 30 years, I have seldom seen anyone who added so much substance and passion to the cultural fabric of our society as he has done with his lectures and presentations.”

     

     

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