'An embarrassment': Sault mayor pledges action on businessman's controversial online posts

'I completely agree with your position,' mayor tells Tim Murphy, who asked that the city stop doing business with Selvers' crane rental firm

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File photo. Donna Hopper/SooToday

Sault Ste. Marie Mayor Christian Provenzano is promising action against online posts by local businessman Dave Selvers that many perceive as inappropriate and an embarrassment to the city.

The mayor's distaste for Selvers' controversial social media posts was expressed late last night in a tweet addressed to Saultites Tim Murphy and Lucas Schmiedendorf.

Provenzano didn't specify precisely what kind of action he was contemplating, but both Murphy and Schmiedendorf requested the city stop doing business with Selvers' company, Millennium Crane Rentals.

"Will the city do the right thing and follow Algoma Steel’s example in dealing with Dave Selvers and Millennium Crane?" Murphy asked, encouraging the mayor to "use your leadership to demonstrate that hatred has no place in the City of Sault Ste. Marie’s business affiliations."

"I am writing to verify that going forward, the city will commit to using other available companies such as Sterling or an out-of-town company instead of using taxpayer monies on Mr. Selvers' company," Schmiedendorf wrote.

"I agree with you @timothyrmurphy," Provenzano responded in his late-night tweet.

"When [Schmiedendorf] raised this with me earlier today I told him I would get on it and get back to him. I am and I will. FTR [for the record] I acknowledge his point and I completely agree with your position."

Last night, SooToday reported that Algoma Steel, a Millennium Crane customer, had denounced Selvers' blog and Facebook page, which repeatedly attack women, liberal politicians, blacks, Muslims, media outlets and LGBTQ+ persons, using crude terminology including "n*****" and "filthy piss drinking Muslim swine."

Meanwhile, Selvers insisted in a late-night blog post of his own that he's done nothing wrong.

"All of the comments contained on my site are neither hateful nor malicious," he wrote.

"The terminology that so many find offensive is commonly used in today's rap music and by the culture from which it was derived," Selvers said.

"As someone who has spent 28 years in a Third World Caribbean country and who supports a Third World family of African descent, I find it disgustingly laughable that I am being labeled a racist etc etc etc."

Selvers acknowldged that "I do make reference to the execution of corrupt politicians who have committed treason and espionage and I do so in a manner reflective of history, and because I am an avid shooter and hunter somehow that makes me a threat to society? I'm not the threat, the people who are advocating violence as a response to [his blog site] are the real threat."

Both Selvers and Bryan Dumanski, a Queen Street chiropractor and 2014 candidate for City Council, have recently suggested that Prime Minister Justin Trudeau should be tried for treason and executed.

"I will personally be mailing him a 12-foot piece of climbers' rope next week," Dumanski said in a Facebook post last Thursday.

"Trudeau government exempts Saudi oil from carbon tax and hits Canadian producers and consumers with the bill," Dr. Dumanski wrote. "He has crossed the line, he should be hanged for treason."

Last night, however, Dumanski told SooToday he really didn't mean it.

"It's just a means of expression," he said. "Do I really think he should be literally 'hanged?' Well of course not. 'Hung out to dry' perhaps. I wish Trudeau a long life so he can witness his lasting legacy on Canada regardless of his intentions.... I hold no respect for the small potato but in no way would I wish harm on him or his family. It's just a benign blowing off of steam and bloody warranted. In my opinion, he is a disgrace to this country and will go down in history as the most divisive and incompetent PM in Canadian history."

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