Category Archives: Skepticism

Australian Vaccination Network ordered to change its name.

Australia’s most dangerous charity is soon to lose its deceptively misleading name. The New South Wales department of Fair Trading has made an order that the Australian Vaccination Network (AVN) change its name by the 21st of February 2013.

Minister for Fair Trading Anthony Roberts today confirmed a formal order has been issued to the Australian Vaccination Network to change its name on the grounds it is misleading the public.

Mr Roberts said Section 11 of the Associations Incorporation Act 2009 provides the Commissioner for Fair Trading may direct an association to adopt a new name, where the name of the association is unacceptable.

“NSW Fair Trading has received complaints that the Australian Vaccination Network’s name is confusing and has misled the public as to its operational intention,” Mr Roberts said.

“The Commissioner for Fair Trading, Rod Stowe, has therefore written to the Australian Vaccination Network, directing the association to change its name.”

The Australian Vaccination Network is required to lodge an application for registration of a new name by 21 February, 2013. –NSW Fair Trading

You can read the letter that was hand delivered to the home of Meryl Dorey the president of the organisation at this link.

Letter from Fair Trading to Ms Dorey.

We know that Ms Dorey has opted to ignore government authorities in the past. However this recent direction from fair trading is an order, not a request. If the AVN choose to ignore Fair Trading they can be deregistered and have all their assets seized.

This is certainly an early Christmass present.

Baseless accusations against Ken McLeod.

For some time now Ken McLeod has been the target of numerous attacks from the anti-vaccination movement. Most notably the Australian Vaccination Network (AVN). These attacks started in 2010 when Ken submitted a complaint to the NSW Health Care Complaints Commission (HCCC). The HCCC responded:

The Commission has determined that the health education service provided by the Australian Vaccination Network on its website provides misleading and inaccurate information on the subject of vaccination. In view of this, the Commission has made the following recommendation to the Australian Vaccination Network, pursuant to section 42(1)(b) of the Health Care Complaints Act, 1993 (the Act):

Recommendation:

The Australian Vaccination Network should include an appropriate statement in a prominent position on its website which states:

The AVN’s purpose is to provide information against vaccination, in order to balance what it believes is the substantial amount of pro-vaccination information available elsewhere.

The information provided by the AVN should not be read as medical advice.

The decision about whether or not to vaccinate should be made in consultation with a health care provider.

–Health Care Complaints Commission

Of course the president of the AVN (Yes, her.) decided it would be wise to simply ignore the HCCC and pretend it never happened. This resulted in the HCCC issuing the now familiar public warning against the AVN as can be seen here. An ordinary person having been busted by health regulators would probably stop and realise that they have gone too far.

However the Australian Vaccination Network is an organisation that takes offence to accountability and so it has to be someone else’s fault but theirs. So while a reasonable person might accept responsibility for their actions the AVN and its president have decided that Ken McLeod is to blame for all their misfortunes.

The AVN has been making outrageously false accusations against Ken for nearly three years. So he recently sent a few emails out explaining the allegations being made against him and asking that they be substantiated:

Dear AVN supporter.

My apologies for contacting you directly, but I have been banned from commenting on the AVN Facebook page and on the Yahoo forum, so I have no other way of bringing this matter to your attention.

On several occasions Ms Dorey has published statements on the AVN Facebook page and on other webpages claiming that she has asked me to stop contacting her, that she has written to my ISP, and that I continue to contact her in a most aggressive and intrusive manner. She accuses me of threatening, stalking and harassing her and her family. All of her allegations are untrue and baseless.

According to my records:

– Ms Dorey has never asked me to stop contacting her. Her last correspondence to me was when I was compiling my first complaint to the HCCC in July 2009, and in that she said she would not respond to any more of my emails.

– I sent her emails in 2011 asking about her Walls St stockbroker experience and on 4 November 2012 querying her statements on tetanus.

– I sent her two formal letters in 2010, one registered mail, asking her asking her to substantiate or withdraw. She never responded so I got my solicitor to write to her.

– I sent the drafts of “Meryl Dorey’s Trouble With The Truth – Parts 1-3” to Ms Dorey for comment and correction, but she never responded.

– My ISPs have never contacted me about any complaints.

Asking Ms Dorey to substantiate her claims can not itself be regarded as “threatening”, “harassment”, or “aggression.” My correspondence with her has always been formal and polite, and she is welcome to place it all on the web so that people can assess her claims. It seems odd to me that the President and Public Officer of a Health Service Provider should insist that she not be sent correspondence asking her to substantiate her claims when they appear to be wrong. I regard it as a simple courtesy that I provide her with the draft of documents in which she is criticised before publication so that she may request that I correct any errors or omissions. She has never asked me to correct any drafts.

On several occasions I have publicly invited Ms Dorey to substantiate her statements about my alleged behavior, and she has failed to do so. On several occasions, those invitations were posted by others on the AVN Facebook page, but were removed by the AVN Facebook admins. The obvious conclusion is that she cannot provide any substantiation, and that she lied.

I invite you to ask her to substantiate her allegations. After all, you are the one she is lying to.

regards

Ken McLeod

As you can see Ken’s email is politely asking people to question the accusations being made towards him. However the president of the AVN has taken offence to this and is now accusing Ken of harassment for simply requesting that people ask her to substantiate her claims.

Several days ago, an unknown number of Australian Vaccination Network (AVN) members and supporters received an unsolicited and unwanted email from Mr Ken McLeod of the hate group, Stop the AVN (SAVN). Mr McLeod has had a long association with the Australian ‘Skeptics’ (parent hate-group to SAVN) and has waged an almost 4-year long campaign against both the AVN and myself.

Back in 2010, I asked Mr McLeod to stop emailing me (something he continues to do on a regular basis) and even wrote to his internet service provider (ISP) to ask them to please make him stop this illegal behaviour. It is my belief that his constant, nearly daily mentions of myself in a derogatory manner, his lies told about me (which were never corrected, even after he was shown to be incorrect) and his unwanted email contacts constitute serious harassment and stalking. Now, he has taken his activities up a notch and started the same sorts of activities with others. 

If you have received one of these messages from Mr McLeod and are upset about being contacted by someone who you do not know and who does not have permission to contact you (non-commercial SPAM), then please consider writing to his ISP – perhaps they will respond if several people write whereas they did not respond to me.

–Meryl Dorey, AVN

Nothing in Kens email can possibly be regarded as either harassment, or stalking. Just read it for yourself and ask why anyone would possibly be upset by this. I think we know the answer.

Equally controversial is asking anything about magazine subscriptions. On Friday I noticed the following posted on the AVNs Facebook wall.

It was gone an hour later.

Burzynski clinic told to stop promoting unproven drug.

The Burzynski Clinic in Texas which sells false hope to the sick and desperate has recently been told by the FDA to stop misleading the public. Dr Burzynski’s Antineoplastons “treatment” is being marketed by his clinic despite not having the approval to do so within the United States.

Promotion of an investigational new drug is prohibited underFDA regulations at 21 CFR 312.7(a), which states, “A sponsor or investigator, or any person acting on behalf of a sponsor or investigator, shall not represent in a promotional context that an investigational new drug is safe or effective for the purposes for which it is under investigation or otherwise promote the drug. This provision is not intended to restrict the full exchange of scientific information concerning the drug, including dissemination of scientific findings in scientific or lay media. Rather, its intent isto restrict promotional claims of safety or effectiveness of the drug for a use for which it is under investigation and to preclude commercialization of the drug before it is approved for commercial distribution.”

…..

OPDP requests that you immediately cease the dissemination of violative promotional materials for Antineoplastons such as those described above. Please submit a written response to this letter on or before November 1, 2012, stating whether you intend to comply with this request, and explaining your plan for discontinuing use of such violative materials.

–Office of Prescription Drug Promotion, United States Food and Drug Administration.

Despite all the marketing promotions on the Burzynski Clinic website Antineoplastons have never been proven to be efficacious. The FDA is allowing the Burzynski Clinic to experiment with the drug to produce evidence that it works. So far no conclusive evidence has been found to support Antineoplastons but that won’t stop a crook like Burzynski from charging people for his “treatment”.

New Zealand anti-vaxxers lose charity license.

Some good news out of New Zealand arrived today. The Immunisation Awareness Society, an anti-vaccination group has just lost its charity status.

The Charities Registration Board (the Board) has determined that the Immunisation Awareness Society Incorporated (the Society) is not qualified for registration as a charitable entity and that it is in the public interest that it be removed from the Charities Register. While the stated purposes of the Society are to advance education, the Board considers that its main purpose is to promote a point of view. The courts have held that promotion of a point of view lies outside the legal definition of a charitable purpose to advance education. –Charities Registration Board, New Zealand

I completely agree with this decision. There is a difference between education and opinion, the main one being that in order to educate the public you must first speak the truth. Lying to the public about made up dangers (i.e the debunked Vaccines Autism claim) isn’t education and certainly isn’t a charitable purpose. It good to see that New Zealand health authorities are looking out for the public interest.

I wish our own authorities in Australia, especially New South Wales would take a more hard line stance against questionable organisations that act against public health. I have a good feeling that recent developments in the Australian state of New South Wales will soon see health authorities coming down hard on certain organisations with regard to activities that endanger the public, or breach regulations.

Anti-vaxxer suggests violence as a means of dealing with critics.

Normally I wouldn’t give a creature like Tim Bolen any recognition, a paranoid crank with little audience. However it would be socially irresponsible for me to ignore this.

Yesterday I was alerted to one of Tim Bolen’s articles that were posted to a mailing list of the Australian Vaccination Network by none other than the president of the AVN, Meryl Dorey. While she didn’t write the article herself the fact that she chose to share it by distributing it to the mailing list suggests that she has no problem with its content. We also know that Tim Bolen enjoys privileges through his association with Ms Dorey, demonstrated by the fact that he was provided with full copies of her court submissions before even the courts were able to view them.

Despite the date Ms Dorey didn’t file her submission until the 15th, and I didn’t receive it until the 19th. Yet, this copy was available on Tim Bolen’s website.

In his latest article Bolen talks about Daniel Rafaelle and repeats the allegation that several threatening phone-calls were made to Ms Dorey by Mr Rafaelle. However there is little reason to believe this allegation to be true. It’s my understanding that the police investigated and found insufficient evidence to support any accusation against Mr Rafaelle.

But that doesn’t stop Tim Bolen from repeating the accusation. I’ve learnt that people like Tim Bolen care little for things like truth and evidence and many even use lies as a means to justify the use of violence against critics, Tim Bolen is one of these people.

For clarity Tim Bolen is accusing skeptics of being ‘Stalkers’ and painting anti-vaxxers as ‘victims’. A common tactic of habitual bull-shitters is to try and demonise anyone who calls them out on their mistruths.

Does that mean that nothing can be done?  Nope.  That means that Dorey, and her associates, now have the advantage, and if played correctly, can pick up all of the marbles in this game.

How?  Easily.  For the laws in every jurisdiction basing its system on English Common Law (England, Australia, Canada, and the US, etc.), are pretty much the same.  They favor the stalking victim – BIG TIME.  More, they allow a response that would, in normal circumstances, be frowned upon.

In short, if played right, the stalking “victim” can lure the predator into a dark place, so to speak, where angry friends are waiting (quietly) to make the equivalent of a “citizen’s arrest.”  And, they are allowed to wait there quietly, armed with the equivalent of a baseball bat, or two, or three, to be used to “subdue, with reasonable force” the stalker, holding them for the local law enforcement. Now ask yourself “What exactly would YOU, as a reasonable person, define “subdue, with reasonable force?” considering, first, that this “stalker” has, already threatened “rape, mutilation, and death by fire?”

Of course, with the threat level what it is, in Australia (rape, mutilation, and death by fire), a prudent person would have one, or more, friends with Vietnam, Iraq, Afghanistan, experience along so that if a weapon appeared in the hands of the stalker…  Use your imagination. –Tim Bolen, Lunatic

You read that right? Tim Bolen is suggesting that it’s appropriate to lure skeptics into a “dark place” and then deal with them as you see fit. The so called ‘Citizens Arrest’ suggested by Bolen would constitute a criminal offense no matter what the target were accused of, not even the police are entitled to use what Bolen considers “Reasonable Force” that would be called either Murder or Grievous Bodily Harm.

So far the following Anti-vaxxer tactics have failed:

  • Lying to the media.
  • Lying to government regulators.
  • Lying to their members.
  • Lying to the public.
  • Lying to the Police.
  • Lying about their critics.
  • Lying about medicine.
  • Lying about their own agenda.
  • Lying about Pharmaceutical Companies.
  • Lying about non-existent conspiracies (Big-Pharma, Reptilians, Illiminati etc)

Perhaps frustration caused by their continual failure to stand up to scientific scrutiny is forcing them to turn to alternate means of silencing their critics. We know they can be quite creative for example reporting skeptic blogs as malware was certainly original.

Violence may very well be the next step. Anyone attending an anti-vaccination seminar should be aware of psychopaths like Tim Bolen who may be about. While the majority of anti-vaxxers are simply parents who’ve been lied to, some of them can be quite fanatical and there’s no knowing who might turn up. As bad as Tim Bolen’s suggestion is we should remember that it was distributed by the head of an Australian “Charity”.

Note: I refuse to provide any direct links to Mr Bolen’s website; using screenshots instead. Because he has previously posted a picture described as “a black man raping a dead white woman whose body has already been torn in half.” on his website.

Australian Vaccination Network trouble with financial reports.

The Australian Vaccination Network is an organisation that could arguably be called ‘Australias most dangerous charity’ and it has a lot of problems when it comes to submitting end of year financial reports. As highlighted by Ken McLeod in a recent report titled “Meryl Doreys Trouble with Finance” where he highlights several discrepancies in the Financial Reports submitted by the organisations Founder, President, Spokesperson and Treasurer all of whom happen to be Ms Dorey.

Since this organisation acts as a charity its financial activities are a matter of public interest. In his report Ken notes the following:

Since the AVN was formed in 1994:

Annual Financial Statements for the years 1994, 1996, 1997, 1998, 1999, and 2000 were not submitted.

The Annual Financial Statement for the year 1995 was not submitted until July 1996.

Annual Financial Statements for the years 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, and 2007 were not submitted until September 2008.

The Annual Financial Statement for the years 2005 and 2006 were not submitted until April 2008.

The Annual Financial Statement for the year 2009 was not submitted until August 2010.

–Ken Mcleod

So why does the Australian Vaccination Network have such difficulty lodging its financial statements, are they trying to hide something?

I can now confirm that as of the 3rd October 2012, no financial statement for 2011 has been lodged.

Re:  AUSTRALIAN VACCINATION NETWORK INCORPORATED – Y2079127, SEARCH No: 275

I refer to your request for copies of documents in relation to the abovementioned organisation.   Any future requests must be submitted on the attached search request form for ease of processing.

A review of the public register indicates the availability of the documents specified below for the fees listed.

        Annual statement 2010 (19 pages) lodged 12/12/11        $37

         Extension of time to lodge 2011 (1 page) lodged 19/10/11           $19

No financial statement for 2011 or further extension of time has been lodged.

Should you have any queries, please contact the Registry on free call 1800 502 042.

-NSW Fair Trading

As an Australian taxpayer I find it unacceptable that a tax exempt organisation should be allowed to get away with not filing Financial Reports, or filing late and questionable reports. I encourage everyone to read Ken McLeod’s report “Meryl Doreys Trouble with Finance” as it provides a valuable insight into the financial activities of Australia’s most dangerous charity.

Relevant reading material;

Meryl Doreys Trouble with Finance by Ken McLeod

AVN Financial Statement 2009 and AVN Financial Statement 2010

AVN Correspondence with Fair Trading regarding their failure to submit financial reports, it should be noted that the AVN fought the freedom of information request for months to prevent this disclosure.

This disgrace of a “charity” needs to end and stop blaming its critics for failure to lodge the required paperwork; as seen in the Fair Trading correspondence.

The strange email.

Meryl Dorey has launched a fresh round of baseless accusations against her critics. A few days ago I received an email via tormail.org from someone claiming to be anonymous. Offering to “fuckup those cunts cyber style” referring to the Australian Vaccination Network. Normally when I receive emails like this I decline the offer and delete the email. This time was no different.

—–Original Message—–
From: Dan Buzzard
Sent: Tuesday, 25 September 2012 8:17 AM
To: ‘fantasticfox5@tormail.org’
Subject: RE: meryl dorey

Hi,

While I appreciate your desire to stop these low lives I could never support the actions you propose.

Shutting down the AVN requires us to keep our footing firmly planted on the moral high ground, so I must decline your offer to “fuckup those cunts cyber style”.

Have a nice day.

~Dan

—–Original Message—–

From: fantasticfox5@tormail.org [mailto:fantasticfox5@tormail.org]

Sent: Tuesday, 25 September 2012 8:02 AM

To: headreptilian@skep.li

Subject: meryl dorey

nice collection of docs. want me to fuckup those cunts cyber style?

they wont know what hit ’em. i can hack their website with sql injection too. plaster it with all sorts. they lose audiance who are offended by wat i post. its how we operate. i could also organize one of our many botnets to take em down with ddos.

just ask if you need help

We are Anonymous.

We are Legion.

We do not forgive.

We do not forget.

Expect us.

I thought nothing more of the email until an hour later when I spotted a post on the AVN Facebook wall complaining about a threat they’d received from a tormail.org user. I notice the signature is exactly the same as the email I received. So perhaps it came from the same person. So I made the email public as I don’t support such activities regardless of who they target.

Of course Meryl Dorey in her infinite wisdom has decided to blame me for it. This seems to be a hobby of hers.

Who is the real perpetrator?
Dan Buzzard, one of the SAVN members I am currently pursuing an AVO against because of his incitement to others to send violent pornographic images to me (do you see a pattern here?) and his constant threats and cyberbullying, has been very active on a forum frequented by those who say they are associated with the hacker group, Anonymous. Remember, the person who sent me these threats and who posted the pornography claims to be a member of Anonymous. –Meryl Dorey

Actually I have never incited anyone to send pornography to Meryl or anyone else. Nor have I ever issued a threat of physical harm to anyone. Meryl’s issue with me revolves around several complaints that I’ve lodged with government departments. Of course that would make her look bad so she feels compelled to make up lies which sound better.

I’m not 100% sure what forum she’s talking about but it might be http://whyweprotest.net in which case her definition of “very active” would be 5 posts in 4 years. Not to mention the fact that it isn’t a hacker forum as she claims. In fact I am frequently opposed to Anonymous “Hackivists” as anyone who checks my older posts would find out. However not to be deterred by facts Meryl continues:

But back to Dan Buzzard. As I said, he was involved with inciting hatred against myself and the AVN on a forum comprised of known hackers. Is it any wonder then that about an hour before I received my email (quoted above), the same person wrote to Dan Buzzard (please see below)

Buzzard must have been pretty concerned about being contacted by this nut-job. This probably was not the outcome he expected because he posted the person’s letter (and his response to them) on his website and claimed that he felt it was his ethical duty to do so. –Meryl Dorey

When some coward is using the internet to issue an anonymous death threat, disclosure of correspondence is the right step to take. Of course I’m not surprised that Meryl cannot recognise ethical behaviour right in front of her.

Buzzard expects me to believe that this person just selected his email address at random – that he stuck his cyber-finger into an online phone book and lo and behold, Buzzard’s name popped out. But I’m not that naive. –Meryl Dorey

Well the email wasn’t specifically addressed to me and if you check the email address you’ll see it was sent to “headreptillian” an email address that currently appears on http://www.bigpharma.com.au and is then redirected to me; I am certainly not known by that address. Whether the sender knew (or cared) who would receive the email is another thing. I don’t know how many other people received the same email but choose to remain silent, perhaps to avoid baseless accusations.

I think his posting this information had more to do with his fear of being implicated in this crime then it did with any ethics or caring about what happened to someone who he considers to be an ‘anti-vax liar’ as he so often likes to refer to me. But he IS implicated and so are his compatriots. –Meryl Dorey

Actually if I were concerned I wouldn’t publish it. I find this all very suspicious as the email seems to be a little too convenient for Meryl and the AVN. Is it possible that someone from within the AVN sent the email as bait to see if I would write an incriminating reply? Clearly any such plan failed as it suggests actions that I frequently oppose. While I can’t prove the source of the anonymous email its nature and convenient timing makes me very suspicious of its origin and purpose. I personally suspect a False Flag operation, but unlike an anti-vaxxer I won’t assert mere suspician as fact without evidence.

The missing summons.

Yesterday the Police came to my door to deliver a summons for court in NSW. The summons, delivered on the 25th is for a court hearing on the 27th. That’s 48 hours in which to prepare a defence and travel to the other side of the country. Prior to this I had no idea what the grounds for the application were. Needless to say I won’t be in court for the mention, but I will certainly attend the later hearing which is when the real action takes place. I’ve already written to the court to notify them of my intent (even before getting the official summons).

Not only did the summons arrive late but it was also sent to the wrong address as I live nowhere near Attadale. You can’t just pick names out of the phone book and decide that’s where you want to send a summons. While anti-vaxxers aren’t known for their accuracy this type of failure suggests that there was never a “Private Investigator” involved, either that or Meryl went with the cheapest she could find. In either case an inaccuracy of more than 30 kilometers is hardly the work of professionals.

I wonder what the court would make of this 48 hour notification.

The two orders she’s seeking are. (my scanner broke)

1. The defendant must not approach or contact the protected persons by any means whatsoever except through the defendants legal representative.

2. The defendant must not mention the applicant in any online forum in any derogatory manner.

I’m guessing she had to choose #1 just to make the application look legitimate. Not an easy task considering we’ve never met in person, and to my knowledge only been in the same building once during a seminar in 2010. Or perhaps those 4 (polite) emails in 3 years really got to her.

However #2 is an option that she was able to write in, under “other”. No doubt she’s tired of the criticism on this blog. Perhaps if she would stop doing dishonest things then I might not have anything to criticise her for.

Why does Meryl Dorey fear free speech?

For the past several weeks Meryl Dorey of the Australian Vaccination Network has been engaged in a campaign of revenge again me for speaking out against her deceptive, fraudulent and misleading practices. It began in August with a few blog posts on the AVNs website titled “Dossier of Attacks on the AVN” where Meryl attempts to hurt her critics by posting complaints we’ve made against her.

However unlike Meryl Dorey the truth doesn’t hurt us; because we’re right while she is proven repeatedly to be in the wrong. So “exposing” us by posting content we freely make available ourselves doesn’t cause us any damage. It would appear that Meryl Dorey is baffled by this as she is constantly trying to cover-up her own actions, while her critics apparently have no need to cover theirs.

No doubt frustrated that her attacks were having such little effect Meryl Dorey decided to up her campaign against me and go after my Facebook account with the intention of censoring me from the “Stop the AVN” page despite the fact that she is not an admin there. To do this she takes advantage of the fact that Facebook has an automated complaints system that does not ask questions.

That’s right just those two posts got me banned from all of Facebook for 24hours. The posts were on a Skeptics Facebook page not the AVN, but obviously they were seen by either Meryl Dorey or one of her supporters. I should point out that this can be done by anyone without any oversight from Facebook.

Of course she won’t stop there, not while she has crime (Perjury in the United States) and misdeeds to cover up. So when I posted a link to my blog on the Stop the AVN Facebook wall (A page Meryl has no ownership or admin claims to) it didn’t take long for her to pounce and hit the report button.

So once more Meryl Dorey has succeeded in censoring me, this all seems a little desperate. Meryl Dorey likes to bang on about how great freedom of speech is, yet she will do anything she can to prevent it.

Fortunately another Skeptic was on the case.

But this reposting was removed twice and I suspect Belinda was likely banned from Facebook after having two complaints filed.

Then another person decided to post my blog directly on the AVN’s Facebook wall. I’m sure the anti-vaxxers would not have been amused by this, but then again the truth always was offensive to them.

Actually the truth can be found by reading the link that appears on the SAVN wall. You don’t find the truth through censorship and suppression of information. Of course those with everything to hide have to choice but to engage in censorship campaigns because the truth is ultimately their undoing.

The user “Skeptic Militia” was kind enough to email me the Facebook takedown notices they received. Along with the resulting ban.

Gee wouldn’t want someone to make it known that they have evidence now would we?

I’m no psychiatrist but Meryl Dorey seems to be getting quite desperate to censor her critics. Although this type of behaviour isn’t new, the AVN is known to abuse, harass and accuse people of child rape if they don’t fall into line with the anti-vaccination ideology. Just for the record Meryl Dorey has stated that she refuses to stop using the rape accusation.

This woman runs a registered “charity”.

So far at least 5 Facebook posts on the Stop the AVN Facebook page that includes a link to:  https://www.danbuzzard.net/journal/how-meryl-dorey-lied-under-oath.html have been removed due to vexatious automated complains. Her insane determination to see the post censored has motivated me to contact the San Fransisco District Attorney’s office to find out if anything can be done in regards to Meryl Dorey lying under oath. Originally it was just going to be a blog post but after such a hostile responce I think it’s worth at least exploring the options since she’s clearly rattled by it.

I also just got word from Facebook that this image has been reported as abusive.

Meryl is due in court on Thursday. So it probably wouldn’t be good for her if someone were to use the above screenshot as a demonstration of her lack of respect for the judicial system. Suggesting the courts may be Bias if they don’t agree with you is unlikely to win any friends.

If anybody has screen shots of warning messages they’ve receive from Facebook. I request that they forward them to me via email: Dan@danscomp.net It would be much appreciated.

While I have no problem with people simply using words. It seems that the anti-vaxxers are determined to go to any length to silence criticism. That includes getting their critics disconnected from Facebook and as a consequence disconnected from friends and family who have come to rely on Facebook (despite my protest) as their primary form of communication.

I have stated previously that I would never sue anyone for their words, and my preferred “weapon” (For lack of a better word) is my blog loaded with yet more words that can address any misinformation stated about me. However now that my opponents are taking action beyond just words and attempting to influence a negative impact upon myself, my friends and family I feel that litigation may be the justified course of action. So far Meryl Dorey has succeeded in disconnecting me from my contracts twice, an online equivalent of cutting my phone line. She has also succeeded in censoring me from Stop the AVNs Facebook page, which she is not an admin and no body at SAVN has decided they want me gone. It is not Meryls place to decide that I should be censored from another person’s plat form, by abusing Facebook’s automated systems she has done just that.

I am concerned that this type of censorship will only increase if it is not stopped. Of course this is only the latest in a long list of attacks against critics.

So far Meryl Dorey has deployed the following tactics against her critics.

  • Blogging – Nothing wrong with this, she’s entitled to her words as are her critics.
  • False DMCA Complaints – She has committed a crime (perjury) under the laws of the United States in order to have her critics censored.
  • Apprehended Violence Orders – She is attempting to obtain restraining orders against her critics including myself, without serving any summons. I may not be a lawyer but I’m reasonably certain that you need to follow correct serving procedures.

  • Making false complaints to Facebook – This results in her victims being disconnected not only from Stop the AVN but also all their Friends and Family who rely on Facebook.
  • Harassment – Meryl Dorey and her followers have engaged in a harassment campaign against grieving parents whose daughter died of whooping cough.

I am becoming increasingly concerned for the safety of people within the Skeptical community because while the anti-vaxxers have historically never posed a direct physical threat. The Australian Vaccination Network in particular it’s president Meryl Dorey appear to be getting more and more desperate to silence critics as time goes on. Perhaps the realisation that the truth hurts only them and not us is prompting them to look for methods beyond just words for silencing their critics.

How Meryl Dorey lied under oath.

Meryl Dorey, the president of the Australian Vaccination Network has lied under oath and I have the evidence to prove this. Meryl Dorey sought to remove a government letter from the internet in an effort to avoid some well deserved criticism. Here is a copy of a DMCA notice that she filed to have the following document removed from the internet: Letter from the OLGR revoking the AVNs charity status.

This is the complaint she filed:

*** BEGIN DMCA NOTIFICATION ***

Pursuant to 17 USC 512(c)(3)(A), this communication serves as a statement that:

I am the exclusive rights holder for material held at http://www.avn.org.au and

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Australian-Vaccination-Network/55142201924?v=wall&ref=mf;

These exclusive rights are being violated by material available upon your site at the following URL(s):

[http://www.scribd.com/doc/51133133/OLGR-Letter-to-AVN-Advising-of-Revocation-14-10-10];

I have a good faith belief that the use of this material in such a fashion is not authorized by the copyright holder, the copyright holder’s agent, or the law;

Under penalty of perjury in a United States court of law, I state that the information contained in this notification is accurate, and that I am authorized to act on the behalf of the exclusive rights holder for the material in question;

I may be contacted by the following methods (include all): Australian Vaccination Network, PO Box 177, BANGALOW NSW 2479, AUSTRALIA; Phone – 612 6687 1699 – FAX 612 6678 0894 – Mobile 61414 872 032 – email meryl@avn.org.au

I hereby request that you remove or disable access to this material as it appears on your service in as expedient a fashion as possible. Thank you.

Regards,

Meryl Wynn Dorey

Meryl Dorey,

Spokesperson

The Australian Vaccination Network, Inc.

[I omitted her absurdy long signature]

*** END DMCA NOTIFICATION ***

The result of this notice is that Ken McLeod who had originally uploaded the document to Scribd received a notice stating that the content had been removed.

Hello, ken_mcleod —

We have removed your document, “OLGR Letter to AVN Advising of Revocation 14-10-10” (id: 51133133) in response to a third-party notification or other indicia that this document was uploaded to Scribd.com without the authorization of the copyright owner. If you believe the removal of this document is the result of a mistake or misidentification, please visit our Scribd Support Desk to access the instructions for providing a counter-notification.

For more information, read about our Copyright Management System or contact us through copyright@scribd.com.

Please note that under Section 512(f) of the Copyright Act, any person who knowingly materially misrepresents that content was removed or disabled by mistake or misidentification may be subject to liability. Please also be advised that we enforce our policy that provides for the termination of users who are identified as repeat infringers.

Thanks for your cooperation.

-Scribd Customer Care

So Meryl’s complaint resulted in the removal of the document. She swore under penalty of perjury that the complaint was true and accurate, not only that but she also consented to the jurisdiction of the United States. The problem with this is that her complaint wasn’t valid and she therefore has committed an offense within the United States.

Scribd, Inc.

Attn: Jason Bentley, Copyright Agent

539 Bryant St, Suite 200

San Francisco, CA 94107

Dear Mr. Bentley:

This letter is a formal response to a claim of copyright infringement against one or more of the documents that I’ve uploaded and published on Scribd.com. I believe the claims of copyright infringement are wrong and vexatious and should be rejected because:

1. The material in question is not copyrighted. The letter which I posted was from an Australian government department, (The New South Wales Office of Liquor Gaming and Racing) reporting its findings of their investigation of a fraudulent “charity”, the so-called “Australian Vaccination Network” and its Public Officer, Ms Meryl Dorey, who I believe to be your complainant. The letter is a public document, and was first posted by Meryl Dorey on her Scribd account. Indeed, the letter and all the other material has been lodged in the New South Wales Supreme Court as part of the Discovery process, see the attached Court Lisiting. It is therefore in the public domain and may be reproduced by anyone.

2. The complainant has provided no copyright registration information or other tangible evidence that the material in question is in fact copyrighted, and I have a good faith belief that it is not. The allegation of copyright violation is therefore in dispute, and at present unsupported.

3. The complainant does not hold the copyright to the material in question, is not the designated representative of the copyright holder, and therefore lacks standing to assert that my use of the material is a violation of any of the owner’s rights. If copyright ownership was to be asserted by anyone, it would have been asserted by the author, and it was not.

4, My use of the material is legally protected because it falls within the “fair use” provision of the copyright regulations, as defined in 17 USC 107. The “fair use” provisions allow for reproduction for the purposes of reporting, research, satire, and so on, and my post conformed to the Act. If the complainant disagrees that this is fair use, they must work directly with me, though legally viable channels, to resolve the dispute. Ms Dorey and the New South Wales Government have never contacted me to express any concerns they may have. Scribd and its employees under no obligation to settle this dispute, or to take any action to restrict my speech at the behest of this complainant.

5. The complaint does not follow the prescribed form for notification of an alleged copyright violation as set forth in the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, 17 USC 512(c)(3). Specifically, the complainant has failed to:

a.. Provide a complaint in written form. [17 USC 512(c)(3)(A)]

b.. Include a physical or electronic signature of the complainant. [17 USC 512(c)(3)(A)(i)]

c.. Identify the specific copyrighted work claimed to be infringed, or, if multiple copyrighted works are covered by a single complaint, provide a representative list of such works. [17 USC 512(c)(3)(A)(ii)]

d.. Provide the URLs for the specific files on my web site that are alleged to be infringing. [17 USC 512(c)(3)(A)(iii)]

e.. Provide sufficient information to identify the complainant, including full name, mailing address, telephone number, and email address. [17 USC 512(c)(3)(A)(iv)]

f.. Include a written statement that the complainant has a good faith belief that use of the disputed material is not authorized by the copyright owner, its agent, or the law. [17 USC 512(c)(3)(A)(v)]

g.. Include a written statement that the information in the notification is accurate, and under penalty of perjury, that the complainant is authorized to act on behalf of the owner of an exclusive right that is allegedly infringed. [17 USC 512(c)

(3)(A)(vi)]

6. The complainant Meryl Dorey or her legal representatives, have never contacted me with their concerns, although they have my postal and email address.

7. The complaint is vexatious in that Ms Dorey is embarrassed to have been exposed in breaches of Australian legislation by the letter, and is attempting to prevent evidence from being published. She is attempting to prevent many documents from being published, and I ask that you regard her as a vexatious complainant and ignore her.

This communication to you is a DMCA counter notification letter as defined in 17 USC 512(g)(3):

I declare, under penalty of perjury, that I have a good faith belief that the complaint of copyright violation is based on mistaken information, misidentification of the material in question, or deliberate misreading of the law.

I ask that Scribd, upon receipt of this counter-notification, restore the material in dispute, unless the complainant files suit against me within ten (10) days, pursuant to 17 USC 512(g)(2)(B).

My name, address, and telephone number are:

FULL NAME: Kenneth Vincent McLeod

I hereby consent to the jurisdiction of the Federal District Court for the San Francisco, California judicial district).

I agree to accept service of process from the complainant.

Best regards,

(the above is the genuine signature of me, Kenneth Vincent McLeod)

This counter notification by Ken McLeod saw the Letter from the OLGR revoking the AVNs charity status restored to the internet by Scribd who were hosting it at the time. Now of course there are many of us hosting this document, ensuring that it will always remain online despite Meryl Doreys best attempts to remove content that is not hers from the Internet. Meryl is so determined to silence her critics that she is prepared to lie under oath. I wonder if she will do the same in a court of law?

Don’t just take my word for it. Here’s the original document of evidence collected by Ken: HERE’S PROOF THAT MERYL DOREY LIED UNDER OATH.

Case Closed…? (Or does the saga continue)