Police officers linked to last year’s G20 summit say a Kitchener activist defamed two undercover police officers in comments he made on a local university-based website.

Dan Kellar, 29, was recently charged with two counts of defamatory libel by officers in the OPP anti-rackets squad as he left his Kitchener home on a bicycle.

He was also charged with counsel to assault one of the officers.

Police allege he published comments likely to injure the reputation of the officers by exposing them to hatred, contempt or ridicule, or that were designed to insult the officers.

Kellar and his lawyer, Davin Charney, say the charges are an attempt to stifle dissent.

“Dissent is now a criminal activity,’’ said Kellar, a member of Anti-War at Laurier (AW@L), which calls itself “a community-based radical direct-action group committed to solidarity and anti-oppressive organizing.’’

Criminal defamation is a rarely used section of the criminal code, Charney said.

“It gives police the ability to criminalize and charge people who are criticizing the police,’’ he said.

Sgt. Pierre Chamberland, a communications spokesperson for the OPP, acknowledged the charge of criminal defamation isn’t commonly laid.

“It’s not a charge I hear used every day,’’ he said. “However, I suspect people will need to understand they own the words they post publicly.’’

As more people communicate on social networks, “They’re going to have to use discretion to ensure (their comments) are not defamatory,’’ Chamberland said.

The defamatory libel charges are not directly related to the G20 summit. Kellar attended the summit with other local activists who were charged. Kellar was arrested, but released without being charged.

But Kellar says the officers who arrested him are from the same unit that arrested other AW@L members and activists in connection with G20-related allegations.

“The cop who arrested me is the one who’s making all the arrests for conspiracy cases,’’ he said.

He said police agents began infiltrating activist groups before the summit. The two undercover officers joined AW@L, but were kicked out in the spring of 2010, before the summit, because activists didn’t feel comfortable around them, he said.

Soon after, they were outed on the website snitchwire.blogspot.com, as being undercover police officers.

Kellar and others felt betrayed by the officers.

One of them befriended local anti-poverty activist Julian Ichim, and went with him to visit Ichim’s dying mother in hospital, Charney said. Ichim was charged with mischief during the G20 protests in Toronto, but the charges were dropped.

“What these officers did is, for over a year and a half, they infiltrated activist communities. They made friends with people,’’ Charney said. “In most cases, they’re dealing with law-abiding people, never charged with any offence. Those people are justifiably offended.’’

The defamatory libel charges were laid against Kellar after he put out a “community alert’’ on AW@L’s website, peaceculture.org. Kellar learned one of the officers had been spotted in Toronto, and, “sent out the warning …‘suspected infiltrator police agent spotted in Toronto,’’’ he said.

In the posting, he made comments police allege are defamatory. He also invited people to “spit in the footsteps’’ of the officer if they saw him. For that, he is charged with counselling to assault.

“I didn’t ask for harm to come to anybody,’’ Kellar said. “I was just letting people know this (man) is milling about in Toronto.’’

Charney argues Kellar’s web posting falls within the scope of what is protected under the charter of rights, and is not criminal.

“I don’t think what he’s done warrants criminal charges,’’ said Charney, himself once an activist who became a lawyer to represent those he feels are unfairly treated by police.

OPP Sgt. Chamberland didn’t want to respond to Kellar’s suggestion that police laid the charges to stifle dissent.

“I’m not going to be dragged into a debate about what they said,’’ he said. “We’ll present the evidence in court.’’

Ironically, Kellar said he didn’t use the real names of the officers in his posting. He used their fake names.

Kellar is to appear in Toronto’s Old City Hall Court on Sept. 20.

Kellar was among a handful of protestors who prevented Christie Blatchford from taking the stage to speak about her book Helpless at the University of Waterloo. He called her book “racist propaganda.’’

dwood@therecord.com