Kiwi Farms

This will be a topic to give a breakdown & chronology of events that unfold from the fallout of Kitchener Comic Con daring to invite Vic Mignogna and Nick Rekieta; breaking the chains of the Vic embargo in Ontario, Canada.

KITCHENER COMIC CON



The convention that kicked the hornet's nest. Kitchener Comic Con (established in 2014, first event being held in 2015 (https://fancons.ca/events/info/14289/kitchener-comic-con-2020) had made waves in the Weeb Wars saga by revealing on February 3rd, 2020 that they invited Vic Mignogna to their convention via announcement video.


Since even before the creation of Kitchener Comic Con, there has been a small/vocal group of people who are upset with the convention organizers. The largest pre-Vic hate stemming from a comment made by organizer Ron Hoppe in 2015, where he said via FB post towards a disgruntled poster "eat a DICK", and the subsequent cascade of calls for action, deplatforming and calls for violence against Ron. Prompting Cressidia Holmes to post a "cease & desist" notice on the Facebook page - to the mockery and screeching of many.

Including a stoking of the fire by-then CEO of ConBravo, Mark P. Tjan, followed by threats of a lawsuit and lawyers from Mark (record of conversation attached below).

In 2017, Walter Shultz began a smear campaign against the owner of the convention, citing "fraudulent" practices, including "false advertising, welfare fraud" and other felonies. Citing "evidence" that was unable to be provided/circumstantial (archive of his personal site, https://archive.ph/v2Aj8)

Feb 23rd, 2019 - A volunteer meeting took place where Chris Sturgess attended and attempted to disrupt the meeting with faux outrage over the convention's "lack" of a harassment policy, despite the event always having a harassment policy stated openly (found here: https://www.kitchenercomic-con.com/policies)(archive)

Feb 26th, 2019 - Chris Sturgess posts on reddit under the username "KCCWarningThrowAway" the controversial reddit thread, detailing claims of misconduct by the organizer. Staff of KCC attempted to answer the claims on the thread, however were moderated/brigaged with downvotes. Any supporters of KCC were branded "sockpuppets" and shouted down. Mods were contacted, and are on record as stating they "don't like" the staff of KCC and they weren't going to remove the topic, despite it breaking the subreddit's rules.

Walter Shultz posts under the thread as "neoengel" detailing his history of claims, linking back to his twitter @neoengel for further, in-depth sperging. Chrisy Berryman (@0xshedevilx0), Shelle-Chii (Jennifer Maillet) and others also dogpile the reddit thread and twitter threads.

Feb 3rd-12th, 2020 - Kitchener Comic Con officially announces Vic Mignogna as a Guest of Honor for the 2020 show. The internet is set on fire.

Lynn Hunt goes on the attack, dog-whistling supporters on twitter to contact venues that are hosting Vic Mignogna. She contacts Kitchener City Hall, urging them to cancel the event. When she wasn't able to get her way, she took to twitter to defame the head of Kitchener Events, making claims he is a white supremacist.



Natalie Slaughter makes a call for the City of Kitchener to remove the staff of KCC and calls into question why City of Kitchener is "fully funding" the event, and is informed that the City doesn't own, fund or organize the event.



Tom White of Channel Awesome spergs out on his personal FB page, referring to the reddit thread. Marzgurl and others (including Anime North directors, and influencers) dogpile the comments and bash/defame Kitchener Comic Con and Ron Hoppe. Tom DFE'd after getting called out on social media, locking down everything posted after 2017.



Several Toronto-area cosplayers decided to post "statements" about their opinion (that nobody asked for), regarding Kitchener Comic Con inviting Vic Mignogna. Convention organizer Cressidia Holmes used her personal twitter to respond back to several of the criticisms:

Cressidia's Twitter Responses:
To Brian Connor: https://twitter.com/DarksideEevee/status/1225519765323735041 (archive)
To "That Joker Guy": https://twitter.com/DarksideEevee/status/1225827464863195137 (archive)
Re: Reddit Thread Fallout: https://twitter.com/DarksideEevee/status/1226405531184701441 (archive)
"YetiCon" Alt Account: https://twitter.com/DarksideEevee/status/1226427087579471872 (archive)
To Shelle-Chii: https://twitter.com/DarksideEevee/status/1226948845642317828 (archive)
Re: Brian Connor: https://twitter.com/DarksideEevee/status/1226948845642317828 (archive)
To Shawn Gendron: https://twitter.com/DarksideEevee/status/1228207613315174406 (archive)

After the clown car emptied, Ron called a close friend (who was a volunteer/staff at AnimeNorth) to inquire if all was okay with him after hearing news he wasn't going to be attending for "safety reasons". During the call, Ron detailed that a second Anime North staff member could be heard talking on the call as well. Ron's friend told him that the reason he couldn't go to KCC in 2020 was because he was being threatened with bans/blacklisting and warned that his "reputation will suffer" and their "gigs will be ended" with Anime North.

Cressidia took to social media to attempt and rally support for all of the people receiving threats. Having received e-mails from several guests and cosplayers citing physical threats of violence, concerns over safety, threats of being banned from various conventions, being blacklisted from events as well as "damage to (their) brand".

Anime North directors immediately denied any responsibility of their staff, instead choosing to accuse KCC directors of "strum[ming] up support" by making up the fact that two AN staffers raised concerns with them.

Later on, an e-mail would be sent to AN staff from Donald Simmons of Anime North, making the statement that the claims were "trolling" and that it is all "nonsense" and to "return to regularly scheduled anime".



Posts were made by the Director of "Public Safety" that backtracked on the outright denial of any issues at all, to trying to downplay it as a "misunderstanding", also going out of his way to give far too much information which led to several individuals being able to identify one of the whistleblowers.

Director of Public Safety's post-official statement statement (https://www.facebook.com/groups/223122254462019/) (archive)


3rd party identifying the name of one of the whistleblowers, based on information gained from Tomo's post.



@Spectre_06 released a 3 part series of YT videos, and after his third installment, seemed to have gotten a little bit too close for comfort for the local cows. Shelle-chii immediately ran crying to social media to try and smear Kitchener Comic Con over the use of the word "autistic" in a video they had no editorial control over.


https://twitter.com/shellechii/status/1233154763769991170
(archive)

Feb 27th, it appears that Walter Schultz has suffered a mental break, after @Spectre_06's video interview with Cressidia. He went on a multi-page autistic rant, making a lot of claims he had no evidence for, and his audience clutched their pearls.



Update 28/2/2020: Jennifer Maillet (vfxjenn) is threatening legal action because she was named, quoting her public statements in a YouTube video, and getting completely blown out for not having any evidence to back up her claims. (https://youtu.be/GoB0ZOLeG3k)


----------------------- Will be updated as things progress.



Convention organizers:
Ron Hoppe (Owner, CEO)
Cressidia Holmes (Director of Communications)

Controversies:
Reddit thread controversy circa 2019: https://www.reddit.com/r/kitchener/comments/aur9f1/a_warning_about_the_upcoming_kitchener_comic_con/ | https://www.reddit.com/r/kitchener/comments/axn9m4/anyone_care_to_share_their_experiences_positive/
Nerd & Tie Shares a Reddit: https://www.reddit.com/r/kitchener/comments/f1wfjz/kitchener_comic_con_and_creating_a_hostile/
The Quartering covers SJW chimpout, reddit thread: https://www.reddit.com/r/KotakuInAction/comments/f10hq9/lying_sjw_busted_tying_to_get_vic_mignogna/
Bounding into Comics article reddit discussion: https://www.reddit.com/r/KotakuInAc...ener_comic_con_defends_decision_to_invite_va/

News Articles/Streams:
Hero Hei: https://youtu.be/AfHANRYvrFg
NyanNet: https://nyannet.com/the-kickvic-har...gain-this-time-with-very-embarrassing-emails/
OneAngryGamer: https://www.oneangrygamer.net/2020/...r-comic-con-for-inviting-vic-mignogna/102556/ | https://www.oneangrygamer.net/2020/02/kitchener-con-details-years-of-harassment-from-sjws/102791/
Bounding Into Comics: https://boundingintocomics.com/2020...iting-rwby-va-vic-mignogna-as-guest-of-honor/ | https://boundingintocomics.com/2020...icipated-the-unprecedented-degree-of-support/
Nerd & Tie: http://www.nerdandtie.com/2020/02/10/kitchener-comic-con-and-creating-a-hostile-convention-culture/
The Quartering: https://youtu.be/KdmIKwkhujM
Come Geek Some: https://youtu.be/uA141FoMSIA | https://youtu.be/1DSADKbOfV4 | https://youtu.be/qzR3RDyUMQM | https://youtu.be/WTvOe4Yjs1M | https://youtu.be/VjgMbB2qz4s | https://youtu.be/UZpXuAgdMJg | https://youtu.be/zAE1I_qMkn8
Spectre Speaks (Interviewed Cressidia Holmes): https://youtu.be/w4VT_ei3T1s | https://youtu.be/qUMB2ge2L1w | https://youtu.be/GoB0ZOLeG3k
Rekieta Law (with Ron Hoppe and Cressidia Holmes): https://youtu.be/rSXQTrIbxbk
SGSAMI/Dynamic Network: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=awIIYzDPygE


Media/Websites:
Official Website: https://www.kitchenercomic-con.com/
Official Twitter: https://twitter.com/KitchenerCon
Facebook Page: https://www.facebook.com/KitchenerComicCon/
Event Page: https://www.facebook.com/events/491116444827502/
Official Store: Store Page, the URL is too damn long

Notable Detractors/Potential/Actual Lolcows:

Locals:
- Walter "SID" Shultz (@neoengel)
- Chris Sturgess (KCCWarningThrowAway)
- Chrisy Berryman (Toronto Costhot, @0xshedevilx0)
- Ryan J. Stanfield (@RJStanMan)
- Shelle-chii (Toronto costhot, @shellechii)
- Jennifer Maillet (Toronto costhot, vfxjenn)
- Tom White (Channel Awesome Producer)
- Shawn Gendron (Male Feminist, SJW ragecuck)
- Mark P. Tjan (Formerly of ConBravo, Connected with Anime North, MarzGurl/ANN)


Internationals:
- Jennifer Lynn Hunt
- Kaylyn Saucedo (MarzGurl)
- Peppermonster/FreshCrackedPep
- Natalie Slaughter (@NatSlaughter)
- Lawtwitter


Archives: