Kelowna orchardists striking back against serial harasser

A Kelowna orchardist family who has become the latest target in a BC man's campaign of harassment is suing him for defamation. Sandher Fruit Packers filed the Notice of Claim in the BC Supreme Court Aug. 19, against convicted fraudster Daryl Grant MacAskill accusing him of purposely causing "fear, anxiety, (and) emotional distress" to the family. "Mr. MacAskill’s malicious... conduct was and remains so outrageous in character, duration, and extreme in degree, so as to go beyond all possible bounds of decency and tolerance," the claim states. MacAskill runs the blog Gangsterism Out and in March started writing about the Sandher family. The 62-year-old posts are badly written and confusing, and he's targeted many others before in similar ways. Spreading lies and defaming them before hitting them up for money to remove the posts. He's also done jail time because of it. Sandher Fruit Packers president Gurtaj Sandher previously said MacAskill hadn't asked them for money. READ MORE: 'HE WILL NOT STOP': Serial harasser has Kelowna family in crosshairs https://infotel.ca/newsitem/he-will-not-stop-serial-harasser-has-kelowna-family-in-crosshairs/it106171 The court documents said the blog contained malicious allegations saying the family is involved with the Mexican Sinaloa cartel, the Khalistan Tiger Force who are considered terrorists by the Government of India, and BC organized crime groups. MacAskill's blogs accuse the family of being involved in criminal activities including "murder, human trafficking, terrorism, drug trafficking, drug smuggling, extortion, money laundering, bribery, and fraud," the court documents said. The claim said MacAskill used images on his blog associated with terrorist organizations and drug cartels to "evoke an emotional response" between the family and criminal behaviour. The court documents gave a detailed breakdown of the many blogs and dozens of emails MacAskill has sent to the family, the media, business owners and others since he singled them out in the spring. Why MacAskill singled the orchardists out isn't known, but he has a long history of harassing behaviour. In 2022, a BC Supreme Court Justice ordered MacAskill to pay a Vancouver investment company $190,000 for his online campaign of defamation and he spent two weeks in jail for contempt of court. MacAskill demanded money from the company to take the blogs down. One email simply said, "pay me off." The investment company didn't cough up, but others have. One company told iNFOnews.ca it paid MacAskill somewhere under $10,000 to stop. He once set up more than 2,300 accounts on an online investor website because it kept banning him. He set up 184 in a single day. He was also criminally charged for harassing a Vancouver lawyer, although the charge was later stayed. In the mid-1990s, he was charged with 27 counts of tax fraud and spent six months in jail having been found guilty to ten of them. Previous victims said MacAskill's campaigns of harassment and defamation are relentless, cost thousands in legal fees and wasted endless hours as they tried to deal with him. The investment company haven't seen a penny of the $190,000 it was awarded which isn't surprising as MacAskill is reportedly homeless and living in a tent encampment in Burnaby. After receiving many emails from MacAskill after iNFOnews.ca first wrote about him, we took the unusual step not to ask him for comment for this story. The Sandher family didn't respond to our request for comment. To contact a reporter for this story, email Ben Bulmer mailto:bbulmer@infonews.ca  or call (250) 309-5230 or email the editor mailto:news@infonews.ca . You can also submit photos, videos or news tips to the newsroom mailto:tips@infonews.ca  and be entered to win a monthly prize draw. We welcome your comments and opinions on our stories but play nice. We won't censor or delete comments unless they contain off-topic statements or links, unnecessary vulgarity, false facts, spam or obviously fake profiles. If you have any concerns about what you see in comments, email the editor in the link above. SUBSCRIBE to our awesome newsletter here https://infotel.ca/newsletter .