Homophobic Mississippi blogger settles "homophobic" libel lawsuit with no retraction of his homophobia; after Supreme Court decision, continues homophobic publishing

A Mississippi accountant various Canadian and United States courts have identified as the publisher of a blatantly homophobic blog, "Slabbed," has apparently had to settle his libel lawsuit against the Halifax Chronicle-Herald newspaper with nothing to show for it. Bay St. Louis resident Douglas

Homophobic blogger Douglas Handshoe

Handshoe's federal lawsuit alleged the paper had defamed him by identifying him as a homophobe. Chief Judge Louis Guirola issued an Order finding "all claims of the pro se Plaintiff which were brought in this civil action or which might have been are now dismissed finally and with prejudice."

The litigious Handshoe filed the lawsuit despite the fact that a U.S. district court judge labelled Handshoe as homophobic in 2012, the U.S. Fifth Circuit Court of Appeal termed his blog publications "grotesque" in 2013, and two justices of the Nova Scotia Supeme Court found him unmistakably homophobic in 2012 and 2014. All these courts were commenting on Handshoe's fervent online attacks on Charles Leary and Vaughan Perret, a gay couple who run an acclaimed accommodation business in Nova Scotia. 

The court decision of the Nova Scotia Supreme Court that the Chronicle-Herald rightly reported on found the following about Handshoe:

The evidence presented establishes that Mr. Handshoe’s defamatory actions have continued unabated since Justice Hood’s order.  This is supported by the statement of claim which I must accept as proven.  The following is but a taste of the defamation plead:

•         Mr. Handshoe has continued to repeatedly publish words   referring to the personal plaintiffs as “girls”, “bitches”, “bottom boys”, “wives”, “perverted” and “queer fag scum.”

•         Mr. Handshoe has continued to publish that the applicants were long term recipients of criminal proceeds from the Broussard criminal scheme.

•        Trout Poitn Lodge was described by Mr. Handshoe as a shell company used for the purposes of a criminal conspiracy including money laundering.

•         The applicants were part of an international criminal conspiracy designed to silence the investigation of their own criminal wrongdoing.  Also that their Nova Scotia legal proceedings were criminally motivated and fraudulent.

•         The plaintiffs and Mr. Boussard illegally influenced the presiding Justice of the Supreme Court in Yarmouth to deprive Mr. Handshoe of his civil rights and due process.

•         Mr. Handshoe published that the applicants intentionally misled Justice Hood and therefore committed perjury.

•         The applicants were members of a Louisiana company involved in criminal activities alleged by American prosecutors.

•         Mr. Handshoe republished the following: “I'll add here, in case it is not self‑evident, that I built complete dossiers on all the players in this social group and I intend through time to roll out each and every one in excruciating detail as long as the lawsuit in Canada is an outstanding issue for Slabbed.  The reason for this is that this band of gay men act as a unit that will also scatter like cockroaches when the heat is applied.”

•         Mr. Handshoe created a video that was published on YouTube.  The content created the implication that the applicants were part of the Aaron Boussard criminal scandal, were involved in criminal activities with Broussard such as those alleged to have been conducted using Nova Scotia Enterprises, LLC, and that Trout Point Lodge was recipient of criminal monies and a place of criminal activity.  Handshoe referred to and pictured Broussard as the “Goatherder in Chief” and the Plaintiff’s as “the goatherders.”

Justice Kevin Coady determined Handshoe's words "have no relationship to fact or truth."

Notably, the settlement with the Canadian daily newspaper has resulted in no public retraction whatsoever of the article identifying Handshoe as homophobic that was central to Handshoe's purported legal case. The settlement came on the cusp of the U.S. Supreme Court's decision on gay marriage. In remarks in the Rose Garden, President Obama welcomed the decision, said the decision on gay marriage “affirms what millions of Americans already believe in their hearts.” “Today,” the President said, “we can say, in no uncertain terms, that we have made our union a little more perfect.” Handshoe and Slabbed appear to be like the Confederate flag, a remant of intolerance from a bygone era.

Handshoe's defamation lawsuit against the Toronto Star newspaper for its coverage of the same Nova Scotia court proceeding is still ongoing. An avid conspiracy theorist, Handshoe has also sued Loyola University Law School and a process server for an alleged conspiracy involving "a line of gay robots."