THUNDER BAY -- Mayor Keith Hobbs says enough is enough.
Tired of constant online attacks against himself and his wife, Marissa, Hobbs says he’s angling to take an unidentified individual to court to face libel and slander charges.
“I’ve seen some absolutely horrendous posts,” Hobbs said on Friday. “I Googled the other day and found some disgusting stuff about my wife and that’s over the top and I can’t even mention what it says.
“So it’s time to get tough now.”
Hobbs, who abandoned both his Twitter and Facebook pages after a barrage of angry and insulting criticisms questioning his decisions and positions, said it’s time to get tough with at least one individual and perhaps more.
“I’m hoping that person is prosecuted in court for libelous slander because what that person said is totally untrue and it’s just over the top and disgusting and vile,” Hobbs said.
The mayor said he’s OK with criticism and people taking jabs at him. He’s a public official and it comes with the territory.
Much of it he’s able to laugh at, including Thursday’s vandalism of his Wikipedia entry, which was altered to suggest he had a role in the assassination of U.S. president John F. Kennedy over a disagreement about Thunder Bay’s proposed event centre plan.
That’s all in jest, Hobbs said.
“I don’t care. There’s some fun stuff on there. There’s a picture of myself and (city manager) Tim Commisso and (Coun.) Joe Virdiramo and it was Larry, Curly and Moe from the Three Stooges. And I laughed at it,” Hobbs said.
“There’s political cartoons and then there’s over the top and this was more than over the top. This was more than a jab.”
Hobbs said he’s filed a complaint with Commisso, who will discuss next steps with the city solicitor. Police Chief J.P. Levesque has also been informed.
“And they are well aware of who this person is,” Hobbs said.
