Widely ostracized since his controversial views on race and gender were highlighted last month by the Canadian Anti-Hate Network, Dave Selvers has sold his Sault Ste. Marie crane business, SooToday has learned.
Millennium Crane Rentals Ltd. has been acquired by local metal fabricator Steel Speed Inc., which is renaming the enterprise and retaining all of Millennium's employees.
"The new crane company, Steel Speed Crane Rentals, will be located in the same building as Millennium as we have agreed to terms with Batchewana Band Industries Ltd.," Steel Speed Inc. general manager Chris Rollin told us tonight.
"Our company does steel fabrication and installation. Hiring crane companies is a key part of our business," Rollin said.
"We had the opportunity to purchase Millennium Crane from Mr. Selvers as it would definitely complement our business."
"We decided to purchase the company and retain all employees as we feel they should not be held responsible for Mr. Selvers' unacceptable views."
Meanwhile, Selvers' controversial Son's of Slavs blog has been removed from the Google-owned Blogger.com website.
The blog was taken down sometime late Tuesday afternoon or evening, replaced by a notice declaring: "Blog has been removed."
"This address is not available for new blogs," the notice said.
It was not immediately clear whether Son's of Slavs was removed by Selvers himself or Blogger.com.
The blog was cited by Batchewana First Nation on March 1 when the band leadership announced it was evicting Selvers and his company, Millennium Crane Rentals.
The crane business, which offers heavy lifting planning, crane rentals, rigging mainline derailments, equipment brokerage and aerial work platform services, has been a tenant at 491 Gran since 2008.
Batchewana, Sault College, the City of Sault Ste. Marie and Algoma Steel all cut ties with Selvers and Millennium since his views were highlighted on Feb. 17 on the website of the Canadian Anti-Hate Network.
In a written statement, Batchewana First Nation expressed concern about crude remarks about women, First Peoples, Muslims and LGBTQ persons, as expressed in Selvers' blog and social media posts.
"Indians are just like the rest of the 'non-white' cultures, they're hateful, arrogant, ignorant and dangerously misguided," read a blog post on Jan. 22. "Without the white man the world crumbles... too many are too stupid to understand this."
SooToday is aware of at least one direct complaint made recently to Blogger.com about Selvers' posts.
Selvers was active on the blog site as recently as this week, although the frequency of his posts was sharply reduced after Batchewana's eviction was announced.
"Our products are platforms for free expression, but we don’t permit hate speech," says Blogger's content policy.
"Hate speech is content that promotes or condones violence against or has the primary purpose of inciting hatred against an individual or group on the basis of their race or ethnic origin, religion, disability, age, nationality, veteran status, sexual orientation, gender, gender identity, or any other characteristic that is associated with systemic discrimination or marginalization," the policy states.
Neither Selvers nor anyone at Batchewana First Nation could be reached for comment today.
The last time Selvers spoke to SooToday was on Feb. 19.
"I'd rather not talk to you," he told us. "I have no faith in the media anymore. This is all blown out of proportion and nobody knows what's going on," he said
When SooToday visited Millennium Crane Rentals at 491 Gran St. in Blue Heron Industrial Park this afternoon, signage had already been removed and phone calls were being re-directed to Steel Speed, which is next door at 487 Gran.
In addition to Rollin, Steel Speed's website lists Manuel Barros, Mauro Vallecorsa and Dara Hyden as principal contacts.
Vallecorsa is Steel Speed's president. Hyden is senior estimator.