Table of Contents
Foreword:- Who is Sally Rugg?
Raised in Perth, Western Australia, Sally Rugg is a successful Australian author, business woman, social commentator, and activist. Until quite recently, she was CEO of Change.org Australia and her work has overseen the successful implementation of many “people driven” social causes via the Change portal.
In early 2018 Single File Please launched a petition on Change.org Australia seeking Compulsory Single File for cyclists. The Petition eventually grew to 142,000 signatures in size. If you would like to read the Petition you can do so by clicking here. Sally Rugg was CEO of Change.org Australia during this time and she has steadfastly supported the right for the Petition to exist.
During the past three years Sally Rugg has received immense criticism (and harassment) from several high profile Australian cycling lobbyists for refusing to remove the Petition for Compulsory Single File from the Change.org website – a consistent claim being “the petition is dangerous and it promotes hate towards a minority group” despite a lack of any credible data which supports such claims.
Sally has come in for so much heat from cyclists because of the Single File petition. Even now, even after she's moved on to her new business ventures in life, she's still copping it. They're still showing up on her Twitter feed with sock puppet accounts trying to justify why she's been getting hassled all this time. Recently, for the first time ever, we contacted Sally in the hope that we could interview her for this article. Sally made it known that she had no desire to be part of any more 'cylist drama' and further, to not contact her again. We have honoured her request and will continue to do so.
Part One:- Compulsory Single File for Cyclists. The petition which started all the fuss.
In the beginning, as the Bible says, there was light. And from our perspective, when we first started Single File Please, there was an unused Facebook site with an invitation on it’s front page for anyone to claim it if they wanted. The Page had a great title which suited our goals. It was named Drivers For Registration Of Cyclists, and as an added bonus, it had 2,500 followers.
In October 2017 the DFROC page was dormant, nothing new had been posted for well over 8 months, so we made an application to Facebook to claim the page under their ‘Orphaned page’ process. After waiting a few weeks the page was granted to us and it had one Admin, an account humourously named ‘Alexander The Average’.
When we first took over the DFROC Page, we were quite surpised to learn almost everyone who previously followed the page were cyclists. It turns out the original purpose of the DFROC page was mostly poking fun at motorists, which explains why cyclists were the main people who were following it. Depending on your sense of humour, it was rather funny watching all these cyclists lose their minds when we started posting about the need for Compulsory Single File.
Not long after we launched the Petition for Compulsory Single File on Change.org, it started growing with astonishing speed. The rate of growth for both the Petition and our Facebook Page was so fast Australia’s major cycling organisations – as well as TV news programs and newsprint – soon realised the Petition was becoming a big deal.
Australia’s cycling lobby was terrified. Here was a Petition which was ticking all the right boxes. It was well written, it was addressed to the right Transport Ministers, and it was concise with diagrams which showed the nature of the problem. Over a six month period there were three, perhaps five occasions the Petition for Compulsory Single File was getting MORE signatures per day than any other petition regarding any subject anywhere on Change.org anywhere in the world.
This next info graphic, taken in May 2019, shows just how huge the difference was in the number of people following Single File Please compared to the major cycling lobby groups in Australia. This is why Australian cycling lobbyists are still so terrified by the Petition. They know the underlying sentiment to support the Petition still exists.
It's easy to forget how big the Petition for CSF was at various times. Our Facebook Page was performing it's role - we were getting huge amounts of engagement, and from there we'd steer our readers to the Petition. There were some days the petition was the lead story on every morning TV show and on the front page of every newspaper in the nation. At certain times it was a big deal - a very big deal.
Part Two:- Cyclists and their unbelievable need for conflict. Welcome to the world of cycling advocacy.
From the moment we wrote our first post about the need for Compulsory Single File, we started getting some truly crazy private messages. The first inkling we’d stirred up a hornet’s nest was a message from this guy.
We didn’t know it at the time but when we started Single File Please, Australia had two egomaniac cycling lobbyists who were at war with each other in an effort to be ‘the one true voice of Australian cycling advocacy’ . And verily we say unto thee – when we offer the word ‘egomaniac’, it is an understatement of galactic proportions.
In the one corner you had the verbal pugilist Dave Sharp from Safe Cycling Australia in Brisbane (who had 45,000 followers), and in the other you had the equally combative Ed Hore from The Australian Cycling Alliance in Melbourne, (who had 19,000 followers).
As soon as they realised we were pushing for Compulsory Single File, they both announced our Facebook Page was a hate site, and they started rallying their troops to go into battle. Not only with us, but quite incredibly – with each other! In effect, they were both so obsessed with getting more followers to their respective Facebook Pages, they gave us truckloads of invaluable free advertising. Within two weeks of starting, our Facebook Page grew from 2,500 to 10,000 followers.
Here’s an image of Ed Hore. As you can see in the attached text, having issues with women is not new to this guy.
In fighting terms you’d describe Dave Sharp as a ‘charge right at you, arms flailing’ kind of guy. By no means is he a fit guy – possibly he could hurt you if he sat on you. Ed Hore isn’t a fit guy either – but he’s more of a judo sort of person. He tends to get his followers to fight his battles for him by quietly manipulating them in the background. Moreover, Ed Hore had something Dave Sharp didn’t have. Ed Hore had a private members group with 2,800 people in it.
There’s another big difference between the two of them as well – Ed Hore is unbelievably passive/aggressive. Dave Sharp at least recognises he has an anger management problem. Ed Hore conversely remains in complete denial about his. He tries to hide his passive/agressive nature but it comes out in very nasty ways, which is ultimately why he started stalking Sally Rugg.
Part Three:- Ed Hore, the cycling lobbyist who decided Sally Rugg was fair game because she wouldn't do what he wanted.
A lot of can be learned about Ed Hore in this next screenshot from the Cycle Members Forum. Of the two leading cycling lobbyists in Australia in 2018, it was Ed Hore (not Dave Sharp) who decided it was OK to target Sally Rugg. While it is true that Dave Sharp can be super aggressive and he has said some really shocking things, in fairness to Dave he has never once targeted Sally Rugg.
In a nutshell, Ed Hore realised the only way to get the Single File Petition taken off air required Sally Rugg to make an executive decision and to order it off air. So he settled on a strategy which involved his followers bombarding Sally Rugg with a mountain of protest emails. Now, it should be noted Sally Rugg never invited Ed Hore to do this – she has later confirmed no such communication ever took place between them – but that’s not how Ed Hore works. What Ed Hore does is he makes grand announcements in his members forum – and his followers blindly follow his instructions.
Ed Hore is not unintelligent. He knew the Petition for CSF was ticking all the right boxes. The Petition wasn’t in breach of any Community Guidelines, nor did it contain offensive language, nor was it making any false claims. Hence, Ed Hore decided the best way to attack the Petition was for cyclists to start claiming the Petition itself was dangerous.
This raises an interesting question. Can a petition actually be dangerous? After all, at the end of the day, a petition is essentially an idea – it’s not a law or a physical danger to someone. In the context of OUR petition, obviously we’re biased, but it is a bit of a stretch.
For the last 25 years Australia has averaged 37 deaths a year. Since 2018 there has been no measurable change in Australia’s cycling fatality rate nor in the cycling “serious injury” rates. At the time of writing 40% of all ‘hospital grade” serious injuries still happen off road on trails and in parks etc, and of the 60% which do happen “on road” 72% of them do NOT involve a car.
Part 3.2 With your blessing, let’s take a moment to analyse the spurious logic Ed Hore likes to use when he claims the Single File petition is dangerous:
- Reason #1 - supposedly we're a fake organisation. Well we have a website and there are four of us who write articles and do our social media content - so if that makes us a fake organisation, whatever.
- Reason #2 - supposedly we incite people to commit violence towards cyclists. Look, claiming Single File Please is responsible for what other people do out there in the real world is a ridiculous standard to apply. It's a very long bow to draw. All we want is for cyclists to ride single file. That's it. That's were it starts, that's where it ends.
- Reason #3 - supposedly our Facebook Page was full of lies and dishonest stories. Again, cycling lobbyists were simply pissed off we were playing the game better than them. We made our Facebook Page as entertaining as possible. That's HOW we got all the attention. Cyclists were the brunt of our satire. And we were good at it too. Which pissed them off even more.
- Reason #4 - the Page owner is supposedly a disgruntled ex-cyclist. This is the hilarious story they cooked up to justify why they have such a hatred for our Petition and for us in general. In reality Single File Please was started by Ian Mayberry, a person who had nothing to do with cycling. But a juicy manufactured story got more cyclists interested in the fight, and from the cycling lobby's perspective that was a good thing.
- Reason #5 - supposedly there have been 'multiple attacks' in recent weeks because of the Petition. Look, this is a classic case of an anecdotal claim which can neither be proven nor disproven. But the stats simply don't back up the claim. Australia has one of the lowest cycling "killed or seriously injured" rates per capita in the OECD.
They say the only way to beat a bad idea is with a better idea. So for sure, from a cycling perspective Compulsory Single File was a bad idea because it meant a whole lot of social enjoyment was going to get ripped out of recreational cycling if the Petition became legislation. The problem for Ed Hore is, apart from attacking Sally Rugg at a personal level, he didn't have a better idea.
Part Four:- Sally Rugg, the permanent target of Ed Hore's relentless cyber stalking and harassment.
In the first six months of the Petition, Sally Rugg was quite open to receiving legitimate emails from cyclists who didn’t like what the petition stood for. However, the sheer number which arrived on her desk required her to reply to them collectively via the email BCC function – rather than individually. Of course, that wasn’t good enough for Ed Hore. He expected Sally to waste hours out of her day replying to each angry email directly. His plan was to get his followers to chew up so much of her time she’d delete the Petition instead.
Something to note about this next screenshot. Later in this article we’ll be including a brave exchange between a male cyclist (who disapproved of Ed Hore’s behaviour towards Sally Rugg) and a certain Michael Kater – a person on Ed Hore’s staff, a person who regularly uses sock puppets to engage in cyber stalking. In that exchange Michael Kater claims (falsely) that Sally Rugg consistently refused to answer ANY emails – therefore she deserved to be harrassed. However, this next email proves that’s far from true.
After all, the Petition’s signature count was still growing. The more it grew the more validity Single File Please commanded in the public discourse of the day – and that was not an acceptable outcome.
So what happened next? Well, being the passive-aggressive person that he is, between 2018-2020 Ed Hore proceeded to publicly harass and personally attack Sally Rugg on Twitter and Facebook no less than 72 occasions. Understandably, eventually she reached a conclusion Ed Hore and his followers were nutters and she put them on her ‘mute’ list.
Here’s an example of a typical comment by Ed Hore to Sally Rugg during that time frame.
So let’s pause things for a moment shall we. This comment was written 16 months after we lauched the Petition. What was Ed Hore’s goal here in this exchange? To remove the Petition, or more likely, to simply show up on Sally’s Twitter timeline and be a petulant asshole?
Even if we assume Ed Hore had a legitimate grievance, he didn’t of course, but assuming he did – how did Ed Hore reach a conclusion Sally Rugg was promoting hatred on the Change.org website?
Well, this is how he joined those dots. As noted earlier in this article – Australia’s cycling lobbyists were incensed we were playing the game better than them.
We were using Facebook to get massive amounts of engagement, and Ed Hore didn’t like how much fun we were having while we were doing it. The more fun we had, the more Australia’s cycling lobbyists became convinced we were engaging in hate speech – and that’s how Ed Hore eventually joined the dots which said Sally Rugg deserved to be a victim of cyberstalking.
So, getting back to Ed Hore and his ‘hard on’ for Sally Rugg. Here’s another example of him harassing Sally Rugg on her Twitter feed….
Ouch! You’re the bike guy…. well let’s be frank Ed Hore brought that response on himself. By the time this exchange happened, Ed Hore and several of his most loyal followers had been harassing Sally Rugg on Facebook and Twitter on a daily basis for a LONG time. Understandably she’d had a gutful of them by that stage. And finally, another example of Ed Hore’s appalling people skills…
Think about this last tweet for a moment. You’re wanting someone to do you a favour – so your strategy is to publicly shame them by stating they’re not a very nice person. Why? Because they’ve refused to engage with you for two years. Why? Because you’ve been slagging them off publicly for two years because you weren’t getting your way. As noted earlier, Ed Hore has some serious passive-aggressive issues.
There's a very petulant side to Ed Hore's nature. But it's a surprisingly common trait among cycling lobbyists around the world. They falsely perceive themselves as a minority group - even though the only thing that defines their minority status is a hobby they can walk away from any time they want. But on top of that, they perceive themselves as a persecuted group at the very top of the victim hierarchy totem pole.
Part Five:- The day Sally Rugg finally told Ed Hore he was a myopic misognystic creep.
Recently – as in just 5 days ago – Sally Rugg had her last day at Change.org before starting her new business ventures. Naturally we wish her every bit of good luck in the future.
If you can believe this, Ed Hore showed up on Sally’s personal Instagram account the day she was bidding her friends at Change.org a fond farewell. In his typical narcissistic style, Ed Hore demanded to meet with her, he creeped her out by stating they were neighbours, and he demanded she tell him how to get the Single File Petition removed from Change dot org.
Worse yet, some of Ed Hore’s followers thought it was perfectly fine to follow Ed Hore’s lead and to hassle her too.
Part 5.2 Here’s Ed Hore’s uninvited ‘final’ exchange with Sally Rugg on her Instagram account:
-
Ed Hore: Good luck in the future... one question, now that you're leaving Change.org is there any chance of removing a petition which has been running almost all the time you've been there, a petition that puts lives at risk, a petition run by somebody who told so many lies you now ignore those people who call out those lies. A petition that may have been responsible for at least one cycling advocate, a petition which pits those who have weapons against those who have none but words, a petition which has you putting a lbel on me. Any chance?
- Ed Hore: Seeing as how I have found out we are neighbours, surely you can help?
- Sally Rugg: I have no idea what you are talking about.
- Ed Hore: Then can I suggest we have a proper chat about it on the phone... in person... or on zoom?
- Sally Rugg: Why would I want to meet with you to talk about a petition when I've left this job? If this is about that obscure cycling petition from years ago I think you need to get off the internet for a bit and realise that some weird Facebook stoush between cyclists and some dude you used to be friends with has zero implications on the behaviour of Victorian motorists and it rates as *no one's* priority during a pandemic except for people like you who are obsessively fixated on it. We don't know each other, you've come to my personal Instagram account to comment on my farewell post about some old petition you don't like? Seriously? That's some weird behaviour dude! Your small group of cyclists have been relentlessly hassling me for years over email and on social media and it's so embarassingly myopic and mysogynist. Log off the internet for a bit.
- Ed Hore: OK... I'll get off your instagram. Just be aware at least one person lost their life because of that petition.
- Ed Hore: One last thing... the people who have been hassling you weren't just my group. They were lots of groups.
- Sally Rugg: Ed Hore you're living in a fantasy world and you need to remove me from it.
- Michael Pesch: Now that you're leaving does that mean a certain petition that threatens the safety of every person who rides a bicycle in Australia has a chance of being removed from the Change.org website?
- Hikoko84: Let me guess. You got pushed out the door because of the online bullying campaigns you have spear headed. What goes around comes around dear Sally.
And so we ask the same question yet again. What on earth was Ed Hore’s goal in this exchange? To remove the Petition for Compulsory Single File, or more likely, to show up on Sally’s Instagram timeline and to simply drop a turd in her farewell post to her former Change.org colleagues? We’ve confirmed in this article Sally had already put Ed Hore on her ‘mute list’. It’s really hard to draw any conclusion other than Ed Hore is indeed an online cyber stalker. And yet he’s one of Australia’s most high profile cycling lobbyists.
Look, I get it. Nobody likes being rebuked publicly, but honestly, Ed Hore brought that on himself. The problem is Sally Rugg hasn't forgotten some of the creepy things Ed Hore (and his followers) have said to her over the past three years. The incredible part is what he did next. He want back to his private members forum and he claimed he was merely trying to reach out to Sally for assistance and that further, her response was churlish and unprofessional.
Part Six:- Ed Hore playing the victim back in his private echo chamber - a guy in total denial to the very end.
Aterm which is often used by psychologists nowadays is insight, as in, the ability to recognise that we ourselves cause most of our problems in life. Put another way, it really does help to look at our own actions and to use insight whenever we can.
Cycling lobbyists like Donnachadh McCarty, Ed Hore, and Michael Kater (our very own permanent cyber stalker otherwise known as Single File Please Exposed) consistently lack insight – they’re incapable of appreciating or feeling the harm they cause in other people. Social media gives these sorts of cycling lobbyists a platform. The more people who follow them, the more they feel validated. But at their core, dark impulses are what they’re being motivated by – and they cynically use cycling as a way to channel those dark impulses.
Perhaps no better confirmation of Ed Hore’s narcissism was his behaviour AFTER Sally Rugg recently rebuked him on her personal Instagram account – bearing in mind of course she’d been copping his online harassment for years.
Quite incredibly, he went back to his private members forum and started playing the victim – completely oblivious to the years of personal attacks he’d been throwing her way on Twitter and Facebook. Indeed, in an effort to gain sympathy, at one point he even tried to convey an impression he’d never had contact with her on social media before.
If you’re a woman, this next exchange really is quite is frightening. It demonstrates how terrifyingly easy it is for some men to justify their shocking attitudes towards women by phrasing their conduct in terms of “defending a cause” – as if that gives them a free pass.
As you read this next exchange, take note of how many remarks are made along the lines of “she deserved it.” Take note of how many fallacies are introduced along the lines of she didn’t care “that Single File Please is a hate group”, she didn’t care “the petition potentially influences car drivers to act out their aggression towards cyclists”, she didn’t care “the petition is potentially killing cyclists”, she didn’t care to respond “to our countless demands to pull the petition off air”.
In this next exchange there was only one male who acted with any class and it was Cy Norman. Eventually Ed Hore realised Cy Norman wasn’t going to back down so he started silencing Cy Norman by tagging all of his further posts as “hidden comments”. In the eyes of the cycling extremists in this exchange, Sally Rugg deserved what she got. And nothing was going to change their minds.
Part 6.2 Here’s Ed Hore’s attempt to justify stalking Sally Rugg in his Members Forum:
-
Cy NormanYou went full creeper so it’s no wonder she responded the way she did. You were very unprofessional. Send an email and not creep her on Instagram.
-
Dallas GoldburgCy Norman I don't think the IG post is Ed's first rodeo with Sally Rugg.
-
Edward HoreAdminCy Norman some one has died and many injured because of this petition and she refuses to talk or look into it. Michael Kater can confirm that many people and groups have tried. I'm trying to stop the next attack. It's that wrong?Ps... she is a local and refused to respond to email, phone calls both to her and to change. If you think this is me creeping... you need to go to the funeral of a cyclist you never met
-
Cy NormanEdward Hore Let’s look at the “context” then. She no longer has anything to do with Change, she’s no longer the CEO, thus your unprofessional behavior is bordering on harassment. Perhaps you should be contacting somebody who actually works at Change to help you?
-
Edward HoreAdminCy Norman I asked her for insight on engaging change
-
Cy NormanEdward Hore Let’s examine the “context” a little bit further shall we, so you can see where you became all creeper. Completely unprofessional, harnessing & threatening. This in not the “advocacy” that cycling needs. If you can’t see that this methodology isn’t working for you, just wow.
-
Terance HoreAdminCy Norman if talking to someone in a meeting is creepy? How do you talk to some and have discussions??Edit*Is it creepy if I personal message you for an interview to be on my Youtube Channel?
-
Edward HoreAdminCy Norman You're a fukn nutter if you think that is creeping... I mean, she just doxxed my neighbour on Instagram, but asking her PUBLICLY is creeping... Cy, you are nuts
-
Edward HoreAdminIt would have been stalking if I was doing this in DMs and following her around her social media, she wont engage... I am going to ask a serious question.You have called someone, they don't return callsYou have emailed and Mailed someone - no commentYou have contacted their FOI - no response.You find out you are living in the same suburb so you publicly contact them and then say fine, bye and unfollow - and that is creeping...Tell me - what would you try if you knew something she may have influence in is KILLING cyclists... What would you do??
-
Edward HoreAdminAnd lets keep the rest of it upWhen she felt attacked I told her bye... I asked, she said know I pointed out that the people contacting her was not some little groups but one of them was Bicycle Queensland and the cyclist killed may have been Cameron Frewer.She doxxed a neighbour which got me to notice her - doxxed... But I ask her something publicly and I am creeping her.
-
Cy NormanEdward Hore You’re the one that’s coming off all Harley Johnson. If that’s your new approach to cycling advocacy, it’s time for a rethink.
-
Terance HoreAdminCy Norman Harley went full roadrage comedy stunt on channel 9. How does this equate?
-
Michael KaterAdminCy Norman Unprofessional and threatening? Seriously? Sally Rugg has refused to respond to emails. Change has been contacted via the regular portals and assurance given by the "first responder" or by the system there would be a response. None was forthcoming and follow ups went unanswered. This all in regard to one of Change's supposed "showpiece" petitions that was being promoted by a Facebook page with an obvious hateful agenda promoting aggression towards cyclists with propaganda, false images, lies and spiteful rhetoric. A petition being promoted by a Facebook page that encouraged hateful commentary from its followers and that deleted all comments from cyclists and banned any of those commenting.Sally Rugg was made fully aware of that. She knew of the lies, the hate, yet she refused to act, even if only in a proper response to significant concerns Edward Hore and others had. It was Sally Rugg who has been unprofessional in acting on the threatening nature of the Single File Petition.And you are saying linking deaths and injuries of cyclists to the petition is a stretch? That Facebook page that promoted the petition and used the petition as an excuse for its own existence actively encouraged comments such as in the screenshot. Sally Rugg ignored that Facebook page even though the prolification of hateful agenda is very much against Change's supposed policy.
-
Cy NormanMichael Kater just because Edward Hore has failed in his advocacy work with Change doesn’t give him the right to go into social media accounts & creep, intimidate & harass because he’s had no cut through using proper advocacy channels. This is exactly the way to ensure your campaign fails.Please don’t attribute false claims to me. Never did I make any comments on the SFP petition itself & certainly didn’t say anything about deaths or injuries being linked to it being a stretch.My comments have only been concerned with the unprofessional behavior & harassment on social media & how that it is detrimental to the advocacy outcomes for Cycle.
-
Michael KaterAdminCy Norman Sally Rugg's reply is unprofessional. She dismisses the ramifications of the petition. She dismisses the concerns a group of cyclists have of the petition which is run by a group you acknowledge "is obviously a hate group of mental challenges nutcases". (And why would an organisation such as Change allow a hate group to be able to continue such a petition?).Sally Rugg's labelling Edward a "misogynist" for contacting her is trash, and you have done the same. Using the misogyny tag is a pathetic attempt of denigration and is simply used as an excuse to sidestep discussion (once again) on the serious issue of a petition on Change that is dangerous and incentivising hate towards vulnerable road users on bicycles from mentally challenged nutcases in motor vehicles who may feel justified to "punishment pass" cyclists just because they are on the road.I look forward to some proper engagement occurring with future discussion between Cycling Advocacy and Change in regard to this petition. Some proper engagement that goes beyond the locked door put in place by Sally Rugg.
-
Ben LeverEdward Hore She was 100% right, dude. The single file petition is stupid, but to suggest that it's responsible for causing people's injuries or deaths - as opposed to reflecting the dangerous beliefs that many drivers already held - is conspiracy-theory stuff. And if a person has knocked you back by email, following them around their social media to try to get them to respond to you is harassment. I suggest you take her advice, log off for a while, and reflect.
-
Edward HoreAdminBen Lever dude.... they just don't respond
-
Jamie RadisonBen Lever I would suggest you have no F**KING idea of the level of hate and violent aggression that the petition triggered and gave permission to. Get off Cycle - wtf are you doing here if you want to support such bike-haters?
-
Ben LeverJamie Radison I know perfectly well the level of hate and aggression that's out there, but that's been around forever, it wasn't caused by this petition. I don't support the petition at all, but do you seriously think getting it taken down (3+ years after it was launched!) will solve anything?
-
Tom SpeersUse of the words "Single file" has absolutely become more prevalent since that petition got wide attention. It shifted the tone of the online debate to a sense that even thought the law is 2 abreast it SHOULD be single file in the minds of many. I have also read many many comments implying people assumed it was single file anyway in complete ignorance of the real law. That is just the online space we have no way of knowing if it has changed driver behaviour and caused real world Incidents but I for one would bet it has. I recall that close pass on the Gold coast a few weeks back had the driver yelling "single file guys" as he drove past? I might be wrong.
Rob Scott has done a great job with this article - it's been an exhausting one to prepare. But it shows just how deep the cycling problem really is. If a bunch of grown men who really should know better, if they can't see how appalling it was to harass Sally Rugg all these years, if they can't acknowledge that it was always her right to decide if she had any interest in talking to them, what hope do we have in reaching an acceptable outcome with cyclists? They're completely blind to their own extremism.
In Closing:- Clutching at straws, the final desperate attempts to remove the Compulsory Single File petition.
Keen eyes may have noticed Ed Hore, in his comments to Sally Rugg on her Instagram account, tried to justify his cyber-stalking by claiming – falsely – that the Petition for Compulsory Single File has resulted in the death “of at least one cycling advocate.” That’s a really long bow to draw at the best of times, but when you analyse his claim in greater detail, you start to get a sense of just how desperate Australia’s cycling lobbyists are to remove the Petition by any means – fair or foul – but mostly foul.
Here’s a screenshot of his original comment…
Cameron Frewer was an Australian cycling advocate who had his own YouTube channel and Facebook page. His “thing” involved mounting video cameras at the front and rear of his bicycle, whereupon he would ride on the most dangerous roads he could find, all in an attempt to upload the most dangerous video footage he could get.
So here’s the true story about Cameron Frewer’s death. He was killed by a drug affected motorist while riding on a 100kph motorway in November 2018. The driver who killed him was a known criminal with multiple drug offences in the Caloundra Court system in the region where Cameron Frewer lived. After a three day bender on crystal methamphetamine, the offender fell asleep at the wheel at over 110kph and struck and killed Cameron Frewer on the Caloundra Motorway.
Since his death, Cameron Frewer has basically been elevated to “ultimate martyr status” by the Australian cycling lobby – the cycling advocate who paid the ultimate price, the guy who “took one for the team”. You can read more about his pointless death by clicking here. What’s important is Frewer was killed by a drug driver who was high as a kite, a driver who didn’t care one little bit about the relevant driving laws – let alone a Petition seeking to change those laws. In short, Frewer’s death had NOTHING to do with our Petition.
It is a measure of how desperate Ed Hore is to remove the Petition for Compulsory Single File that he is prepared to dance on the grave of a dead cyclist and claim, quite falsely, the Petition forced the driver who killed Cameron Frewer to (a) have a three day crystal meth bender and (b) then drive illegally while high and (c) then fall asleep at the wheel, resulting in Frewer’s death. By extension, in the twisted messed up world of Ed Hore, this is conclusive evidence the Petition of Single File is dangerous to cyclists and it should be pulled off air.
The Australian cycling lobby remains terrified of the Petition for Compulsory Single File. They want to get rid of it by any means. Perhaps, if you've read this far, you might be able to see the extent the cycling lobby is prepared to go to remove the Petition. And while it's cold comfort for Sally Rugg to learn this, she's not the only person who has been vilified, harassed, and defamed by the cycling lobby in their attempts to get rid of the Petition. There is another person out there who has copped it ten times worse. That particular story will form Part Two of this series of articles.
Share this article on your favourite social media platform.
