Photo via Life Site News youtube screengrab.
A man has been fired from his job at a hair salon after a video of him kicking a protester at an anti-abortion rally went viral this week.A video that has been seen over half a million times and, at the time of writing, sits in the YouTube trending section shows Marie-Claire Bissonnette, an anti-abortion activist, being kicked by a man during a rally. In an article on an anti-abortion website, Bissonnette writes she was at an action called Life Chain in downtown Toronto on Sunday in the early afternoon when the man showed up.Bissonnette says that, once there, the man took out two markers and started scribbling on peoples signs to block out the writing. She says she told people to protect their signs and when she did the man drew on the backs of the protestors before turning to confront her. It was here when she started filming.The two begin arguing with the man asking Bissonnette if a woman who was raped should have the option of having an abortion. Bissonnette said indicated that she believes the woman should and began expanding on her answer. The man, dressed in a purple hoodie with a flower in his hair and a pentagram necklace, obviously didnât take kindly to this answer.From here he enters a stance that I can only describe as Power Ranger(y)âŠ. I guess. He crouches down, twists his upper body back, brings his arms up, and sticks his tongues out.Then he unleashes a roundhouse kick and the phone goes flying.âI meant to kick the phone,â the man can be heard saying repeatedly in the immediate aftermath as people start yelling. Bissonnette writes that another protestor called 911 and the man fledâbut not before yanking off an anti-abortion ribbon she was wearing.âI did not see it coming. I didnât anticipate any violence,â Bissonnette told Global News. âAs soon as he kicked me, the only thing I could think of was to get the police, make sure someone calls the police.âAfter the video went viral a massive online movement started to find his identity. This included people like Laura Ingraham, and others on the right, tweeting out things like âletâs find this slime.â Late on Wednesday, they got their answer when Studio 101 hair salon (who are big enough to do Nick Kypreosâ hair) released a statement naming the kicker as Jordan Hunt and announcing that he has been fired. The statement says that it was brought to their attention that âJordan Hunt has been caught on camera assaulting an innocent bystander at a pro-life rally.ââWe donât condone his actions and he has been let go,â reads the statement. âWe believe that everyone has a right to an opinion and the right to voice their opinion without fear of physical violence.âStudio 101 has since deleted an artist profile of Hunt from their website.On Wednesday, a combative Twitter account linked to Hunt popped up with many angry conservatives challenging it to fights and some media quoting it as Hunt. However, most evidence points to the account as being fake.The account changed its name from @BLUEWAV94011533 and was tweeting under that name as late as Tuesdayâhe also used a publicly available photo of Hunt as a profile pic. While it did tweet from a politically left perspective, it focused solely on America (no tweets about Canada or Ontario,) and didnât mention abortion. Since changing its name it has been trolling users by comparing himself to civil rights heroes or telling users to fuck off in a myriad of ways all under the guise of Hunt.âI will NOT apologize for defending womenâs right to choose. Even to a woman. #TheResistance,â reads one tweet.It was ratioed into oblivion.Sign up for the VICE Canada Newsletter to get the best of VICE Canada delivered to your inbox.Follow Mack Lamoureux on Twitter .
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The police arrived within ten minutes, Bissonnette writes, but they werenât very helpful. saying âwhat do you want us to do about itâ after she showed them the video. She says she plans to file a complaint.
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