Jessica Yaniv advances private prosecution against disabled journalist

Yaniv’s prosecution appeared as “restricted access,” giving no information on the prosecution, its date, or its time of hearing—but a clerk at the Surrey Courthouse accidentally revealed the information to The Post Millennial when we inquired about why the listing’s information had been withheld from the public.

The private prosecution had been flaunted by the serial litigant on Twitter, with Yaniv mocking Smith, an intellectually disabled man living on social assistance, on its filing multiple times.

December 11, 2019

Yaniv’s history with Smith began when Smith took interest in Yaniv’s case along with the rest of the country—after Yaniv’s sordid history with minors was revealed by The Post Millennial. Smith ran a small YouTube channel and would provide social commentary on breaking news. During a livestream in August of 2019, Smith called Yaniv and demanded Yaniv cease calling his phone, and Yaniv threatened to murder Smith in response.

The tension between the two only escalated from there, with Yaniv routinely launching accusations at Smith via Twitter. At one point, Yaniv accused Smith of calling Yaniv from a blocked-ID number repeatedly, but a preliminary review of records from Smith’s primary phone number—one he claimed was his only phone—demonstrated no more than five calls were made to Yaniv during a four-month time period.

October 10, 2019

In November of 2019, Jessica Yaniv filed multiple copyright strikes against Smith’s Youtube channel, causing it to be banned from Youtube. The copyright process required Yaniv to sign a contract with Youtube stating that Yaniv had ownership of the content on Smith’s channel, all of which were videos Smith took himself. YouTube does not arbitrate copyright claims, and instead uses the contractual agreement to mitigate any legal responsibility, assigning it to the parties involved.

Shortly after, Yaniv doxxed Smith—revealing his personal home address. The tweet was mass-reported by concerned Twitter users and subsequently deleted.

In December, it was verified that Yaniv sent Donald Smith a threatening email similar to the verbal death-threat made in August of 2019. In the email, Yaniv threatens Smith, and says “prepare to be murdered you piece of human shit.”

Additional disturbing emails were sent to Smith during this time period from emails purported to belong to Jessica Yaniv.

On December 31, 2019, Donald Smith was arrested. This followed a campaign of Jessica Yaniv demanding that police take action against him for “harassment” amongst other accusations, the validity of which can not be verified. Smith was released on February 5, 2020, and is considering pursuing legal action against Jessica Yaniv with the assistance of Kari Simpson of Culture Guard.

Smith’s plans to act on legal grievances come as Keean Bexte and David Menzies of the Rebel News both finalized their legal submissions against Jessica Yaniv, the two seeking $35,000 for multiple assaults endured at different points in time. Likewise, Amy Eileen Hamm, a feminist activist and reporter has moved to serve Yaniv with a civil suit for defamation after Yaniv claimed Hamm “sexually assaulted” Yaniv in the restroom of the Surrey Courthouse on January 13, 2020.