Yesterday, Canadian transwoman Jessica Yaniv was in court on weapons charges stemming from a YouTube interview. During the interview, Yaniv pulled out a taser and demonstrated that it worked. Tasers are not legal for the public to own in Canada so Yaniv was arrested.

Waiting outside the courthouse yesterday were reporters for Rebel Media. One of them went inside and asked if Yaniv would be pleading guilty. Police approached the reporter and accused him of taking photos inside the courthouse (which is not allowed in Canada). While the reporter was showing the police his phone, Yaniv slipped out of the courtroom. The reporter got up and followed:

BC Courthouse Sheriffs prioritize a predator's (J. Yaniv) ego over a reporter's right to be in – and report on – an open courtroom of international significance. Yaniv is currently seeking a publication ban, and the sheriffs are happy to assist with that, even in public places. pic.twitter.com/uP523kjO4n

— Keean Bexte (@TheRealKeean) January 13, 2020

When Yaniv made a second attempt to leave, the same reporter was waiting and asked the same question. That’s when Yaniv got aggressive and threw punches, one of which allegedly connected with the reporter’s head. Some very NSFW language in this clip:

J. Yaniv just punched me in the back of the head. Just spoke to police. Luckily there are two security cameras directly overhead at the courthouse. I need an advil. pic.twitter.com/3hfm2CfYhq

— Keean Bexte (@TheRealKeean) January 14, 2020

The last moments of this were captured from another angle:

Managed to catch this clip from the car of @TheRealKeean being charged at by Yaniv outside of the courtroom. Not very great quality. pic.twitter.com/kJnkLj4aEV

— Cosmin Dzsurdzsa (@cosminDZS) January 14, 2020

Yaniv tweeted this about the incident:

https://twitter.com/trustednerd/status/1217095354023235584

I don’t claim to understand the law in Canada but in the US, punching someone is assault. You don’t get to assault reporters in a public space even if you don’t like them or the questions they are asking.

Before the trouble with the law over the taser, Yaniv was best known for filing a series of charges with Canada’s human rights court over the refusal of multiple estheticians to provide a Brazillian wax of Yaniv’s male anatomy. Last October, Yaniv lost that case. The court found that Yaniv had filed the complaints in bad faith as a way to extort money from the businesses in question:

In 10 out of her 13 waxing complaints, Ms. Yaniv initially sought the same remedy: an apology and $3,000 in damages…

Overall, Ms. Yaniv’s comments about settlement and her behaviour throughout the process supports that she targeted small businesses, manufactured the conditions for a human rights complaint, and then leveraged that complaint to pursue a financial settlement from parties who were unsophisticated and unlikely to mount a proper defence.

The court also concluded that Yaniv appeared to have racial animus toward the mostly Asian women who worked as beauticians. Yaniv was ordered to pay $2,000 each to three different women targeted in the scheme.

But as Jazz pointed out last month, Yaniv seemed to have moved on to a new scheme, tweeting outrage that a gynecologist was refusing service to a transwoman with male anatomy. Yaniv has since deleted the tweets but I wonder what a gynecologist was supposed to do in this situation?