Mona Shivanika Kiriakopoulos

fanatic. foreveroptimist #notinthatorder #leafsforever

[WeBelieve @WeBelieveEM]

Carter Hart is about to play in the Stanley Cup Final. He was acquitted of sexual assault charges this past summer, but there is a lot more to the story. With the brightest lights now shining on him, it is important to understand the nuance of the controversial case.

“We Believe E.M” does not mean we believe every detail of her testimony. It does not mean we believe she did not make any mistakes that night. It simply means we believe she was sexually assaulted. And the evidence supports that belief.

I will leave you with some facts. This is all available if you research (tw // sa):

- There is ZERO evidence or testimony that EM ever asked Michael McLeod to invite additional men to that hotel room. McLeod never testified, and all we have is a video interview with police where he never made that claim, meanwhile LYING when he denied sending a text invite to ALL his teammates. On the otherhand, there is text evidence the following day of EM telling McLeod she did not expect more partners, and it was not disputed by McLeod.

- There is ZERO evidence or testimony that EM ever asked (or was asked) for Cal Foote to do the splits over her. Even if you believe the men’s story that she was saying “have sex with me”, she never said “teabag me”. The judge actually agreed in her report there was no consent, instead she dismissed it saying it was non-sexual based on Carter Hart’s testimony that Foote was not naked.

- In 2022, Alex Formenton & Dillon Dube BOTH CONFESSED to Hockey Canada that Cal Foote was naked during the splits. This was ruled inadmissible on a technicality. Other than Hart, no other witness dared to say Foote was clothed; they all pretended to not remember.

With this information, at the very least, McLeod and Foote are guilty:

- Foote performed a sexual act without consent. It does not make him a rapist, but it is a crime

- McLeod is an accessory to that sexual assault

If these two men were given the guilty verdict I strongly believe they deserved (even if it was a proverbial slap on the wrist; i.e. a 6-month house arrest), it would have been an amazing teaching moment for our nation while setting a modern standard for consent.

The conduct of the others, including Hart, may not have been illegal. There was certainly not enough evidence to prove it was. But that does not mean what they did wasn’t morally reprehensible. The NHL and Hockey Canada both agreed.

The NHL kept the players out of the league for months PAST the ruling, citing their own private investigation. Hockey Canada stood in the House of Commons and said “harm was caused” after paying out a civil settlement.

But what Hart did was more than morally wrong. He lied under oath to protect his teammates. This is actually perjury. The judge by law is not privy to those 2022 confessions, but we as a public are. We are allowed to pass judgement in the court of public opinion.

Hart is not a conquering hero who overcame adversity. He is a liar who abused his privilege and legal protection to obstruct justice. He is allowed to continue his career, and we are allowed to remind him of his abhorrent behaviour.

[Mona Shivanika Kiriakopoulos @shivanika]

Living rent-free......
#leafsforever 💪

[Dan Riccio @danriccio_]

The Leafs missed the playoffs for the first time in nine years and somehow they’re still the most talked about team of the postseason. Wild stuff.

[Kevin Gausman @KevinGausman]

If the roof is closed tonight we riot

[Mark Ruffalo @MarkRuffalo]

https://t.co/pDHSOYG0ZK

“At least 15 cases of sexual assaults, including rape. Shot with rubber bullets at close range. Tens of people’s bones broken,” organizers of the Global SumudFlotilla posted on the Telegram social media app.
“While the world’s eye is trained on the suffering of our participants, we cannot emphasize enough that this is a mere glimpse of the brutality Israel imposes daily on Palestinian hostages.”

[Mayor Zohran Kwame Mamdani @NYCMayor]

Today marks Nakba Day, an annual day of remembrance to commemorate the expulsion of more than 700,000 Palestinians between 1947 and 1949 during the creation of the State of Israel and the year that followed.

Inea is a New Yorker and a Nakba survivor. She shared her story with us — one of home, tradition and memory over generations.

[Mona Shivanika Kiriakopoulos @shivanika]

‼️‼️‼️ #LeafsForever

[Mark Ruffalo @MarkRuffalo]

Scott gets very hot and bothered by a smart man that’s younger than him. It is hilarious how entitled and superior he acts when you bring up real cogent points. Or makes slights about your masculinity like a man who is worried about his own. But like all MAGA’s they demand agreement  without earning it and resort to violence when they are being bested on ideas. Good job staying on point and composed.
As Trump melts down so do his enablers.
One day he will pretend he was always against this.
Like all the neocon hacks of Iraq.
And all the boosters for the genocide against the Palestinian people. And the Epstein Class. They only follow power and have no real moral center.

[Bruce Arthur @bruce_arthur]

I don’t know how you don’t get emotional watching astronauts coming home

[Covie @covie_93]

Tiger Woods should take trump for a drive.

[Toronto Blue Jays @BlueJays]

💦😬😎😃

[Canada Hates Trump @AntiTrumpCanada]

You ghoulish, soulless fuck. You weren’t “hurt,” you were exposed. And even now, you’re still too much of a cowardly, narcissistic piece of shit to tell the difference. Unlike Mueller’s death, yours will be celebrated worldwide and your grave will smell overwhelmingly of piss.

[Bruce Arthur @bruce_arthur]

It was on video

[James Tate @JamesTate121]

I used to wonder how it was possible that Trump could have won in 2016, and then again in 2024, given how emotionally toxic and depraved he is.
I don’t wonder anymore. I think he won for that exact reason. Because he carried at least one broken shard to reflect the broken shards in millions of others.
If you’re a racist, you found your guy. If you’re a misogynist, you found your guy. If money is your only religion, you found your guy. If your heart is armored shut, you found your guy. If you mock the disabled, you found your guy. If intelligence makes you insecure, you found your guy. If you’re a sexual predator, you found your guy. If you trade in humiliation and conspiracy and filth, you found your guy.
If you’ve never done a single hour of emotional inventory, you found your guy. If you cheat, stiff contractors, bankrupt your obligations, and call it savvy, you found your guy. If you lie as easily as you breathe, you found your guy. If cruelty feels like strength, you found your guy. If white grievance is your comfort food, you found your guy. If your ego is a black hole no title can fill, you found your guy. If warmongering fuels your ego, you found your guy, If empathy feels like weakness and dominance feels like oxygen, you found your guy.
If he’d only carried one or two of these pathologies, he might have been dismissed as just another loud, damaged man. But he carried a buffet of them. That was the appeal. Millions could locate themselves somewhere in the wreckage. They didn’t have to agree with all of it. They just had to recognize a piece of themselves in it.
It was never really about him. It was about the validation. The absolution. The permission. He didn’t invent the resentment; he amplified it. He didn’t create the cruelty; he normalized it. He gave millions the intoxicating relief of hearing their ugliest impulses echoed back at rally volume.
Trump is a symptom. The deeper illness is collective. If there’s one sentence that defines his power, it’s this: “He says the things I’m thinking.”
And that’s the part that should chill us.
Because what does it say about us that so many were thinking those things? That tens of millions of Americans harbored resentments so deep, so seething, that they were simply waiting for a demagogue to baptize them as virtue? That after decades of supposed progress on race, gender, and equality, so many white men felt so threatened, so displaced, so furious, that cruelty became a political platform?
Maybe we were living in a fool’s paradise, mistaking silence for healing, politeness for progress.
Now the mask is off. Now we know.
And knowing is a far more dangerous place to stand.
– Michael Jochum, Not Just a Drummer: Reflections on Art, Politics, Dogs, and the Human Condition.

[Dean Blundell🇨🇦 @ItsDeanBlundell]

Who did this?? 😂

[Bruce Croxon @bruce_croxon]

Best quote I heard from the Olympic hockey final " I'd rather be a Canadian with a silver then an American with a gold "

[Jim Acosta @Acosta]

BREAKING: The Epstein survivors are releasing this ad on this Super Bowl Sunday to send the message that they will not “move on” from the largest sex trafficking scandal in the world. #standwithsurvivors

[George Stroumboulopoulos 🐺 @strombo]

Of all the things I’ve seen said about the [other] halftime show. This seems to be the [most] accurate.…

the people who want “their own” halftime show are the same people who wanted their own drinking fountains.

[Bernie Sanders @BernieSanders]

What should alarm us about the Epstein files isn’t just the appalling details.

It is the degree to which enormously wealthy and powerful people live by their own rules — and continue to get away with it.

It’s a club where the rules and the law don't apply. And you’re not in it.

[claire de lune @ClaireMPLS]

how is what we all saw yesterday not the biggest news story in human history??? i feel insane