
Canada's last witch trials: Women accused of fake witchcraft - Thevet
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-45983540
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billyjobob
_> "If you're going to invest $20, $40, $60 in a tarot reading and you find
it's irrelevant to you, or did you no good, why would that being any different
than going to a reiki treatment and finding that didn't work?" she asked.
"Would you charge a reiki practitioner with fraud?"_

She makes an excellent point, but not the one she intended.

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meowface
It is a slippery slope, though. Do we need to prosecute all manufacturers of
homeopathic medicine and all doctors who recommend it for fraud? All psychics,
mediums, etc.? Does this extend to religious healers? Similar to reiki, what
about people who claim acupuncture or chiropractic adjustments or crystal
healing can treat serious diseases? What about doctors who recommend Eastern
medicine practices like consuming certain organs of certain animals to treat
issues?

It is all fraud, but if we're going to be charging all people like that with
fraud, then freedom of speech becomes infringed to some extent. Many of these
fraudsters genuinely believe what they're doing is legitimate and isn't fraud.
Many of the clients genuinely believe it's legitimate due to their belief
systems.

An argument could be made that people should be allowed to spend their money
as they choose and that the government should not be in the business of
deciding if they're spending their money wisely. Gambling is another example.

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pjc50
The UK restricts advertising of medicine quite dramatically (you're not
allowed to advertise prescription-only drugs), and has a specific ban on
falsely advertising the ability to cure cancer.

> freedom of speech becomes infringed to some extent

Fortunately not everyone thinks that freedom of speech extends to freedom to
defraud the vulnerable.

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meowface
True, but many of the aforementioned fraudsters are careful to dodge around
those laws and not make extravagant claims of effectiveness. They won't
advertise that something can cure cancer. But during private 1-on-1 treatment
sessions, they could imply otherwise.

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AJ007
When you see a storefront psychic, which appears to have no customers, in a
place where it would seem the rent wouldn't support a handful of $20 readings
a day, there is a reason why. People don't understand how widespread psychic
fraud is or how much money they are stealing.

Other religions or cults tend to be more ambiguous in the direct benefits
donors will be receiving but often the general premise is the same.

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Rjevski
It’s a shame the law is being repealed. Seems like it’s doing it’s job
perfectly fine at dealing with “witches” defrauding people out of tens of
thousands of bucks.

I don’t have a problem with “altruistic” witchcraft (although I still think
anyone believing in this is an idiot) but there should be protections in place
against these magicians exploiting the fears of vulnerable people for money.

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vinceguidry
I get the feeling that many of the commenters on this story would love to see
a law banning all religious practice.

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krapp
I'd be fine with banning the tax exempt status of religious organizations and
making the separation between church and state as explicit as possible.

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maxxxxx
I also would like to see the Catholic Church treated like any other
organization would have been treated whose members abused children and covered
this up for decades.

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mprev
This seems less about witchcraft as such and more about defrauding people.

Having said that, is there any other kind of witchcraft than fake witchcraft?

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DanHulton
Well, as a religious practice, it's only really as fake as any other religion
is... Which I'll leave as an exercise for the reader to debate.

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crankylinuxuser
So...

When Christian churches tell congregants that tithing 10% saves your soul, are
they engaging in fraud?

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krapp
Christian churches shouldn't be telling anyone that, because that's not how
Christianity works, but if they did, yes I think they would be.

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Retric
[https://www.britannica.com/topic/indulgence](https://www.britannica.com/topic/indulgence)

Now days it’s not mainstream, but I suspect a few preachers/televangelist has
suggested such things more recently.

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PhasmaFelis
Selling indulgences was never mainstream or officially sanctioned by the
Catholic Church, and it was formally banned almost 500 years ago.

And, in any case, many modern churches and denominations are only tenuously
connected to Catholicism of any era.

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Retric
It was Catholic doctrine at the time, and a significant portion of the
protestant reformation.

'Luther came to reject several teachings and practices of the Roman Catholic
Church. He strongly disputed the Catholic view on indulgences. Luther proposed
an academic discussion of the practice and efficacy of indulgences in his
Ninety-five Theses of 1517.'
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Martin_Luther](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Martin_Luther)

Now, I am not saying the church selling indulgences from a specific menu of
sins > prices was mainstream. But, the idea of good works on earth and
specifically giving to the church being a good work was very much so. There
are also cases of rather significant donations to the church connected to this
idea.

PS: Note, this is about reducing time spent in purgatory, not buying your way
into heaven. Purgatory was supposed to be a very unpleasant place, but your
stay was going to be temporary either way.

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dmix
The article doesn't mention a man sold his house and car for $600k to pay
Samantha Stevenson (a Toronto psychic) to get evil spirits from his house:

[https://globalnews.ca/news/4594695/woman-charged-
witchcraft-...](https://globalnews.ca/news/4594695/woman-charged-witchcraft-
york-regional-police/)

I'm guessing the 60k charge is against this woman's sister or mother?

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dsfyu404ed
TL;DR the law prohibits fraud in the context of witchcraft and is being
repealed along with laws against dueling and blasphemous libel because it is
redundant and isn't really used except by prosecutors looking to throw the
book.

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canekong
They pass the test if the witches can do the 7 wonders.

