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Metaphysics & Psychology

Woman charged with pretending to be a witch

By T.K. Randall
December 23, 2018 · Comment icon 35 comments

Countless accused witches were executed in the 15th and 16th centuries. Image Credit: sxc.hu
A woman in Ontario was recently arrested for witchcraft two days before the archaic law was set to be scrubbed.
33-year-old Tiffany Butch was charged on December 11th with demanding money in exchange for lifting a curse - a crime that falls under an age-old law prohibiting 'pretending to practise witchcraft'.

Butch, who also goes by the moniker 'White Witch of the North', was charged with the offense despite the fact that the law itself was set to be scrubbed entirely a mere two days later.

Timmins police force spokesman Marc Depatie explained that both police and prosecutors apply the law as it exists at the time of the offense.
"(In) this particular set of circumstances, the person gave them a sense of foreboding that a dreadful thing was about to happen to their family at some point ... (that) they should provide them with financial compensation so they could perform some sort of mystical service that would prevent that from happening," he said.

Butch herself however denies the allegations.

"People proclaimed me a witch here and gave me a nickname, but I'm not a witch. I'm a psychic," she said. "I don't know who this person even is, and none of my customers from October to now have put in any complaints with me or asked me for refunds back."

The case remains ongoing.

Source: CBC.ca | Comments (35)




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Recent comments on this story
Comment icon #26 Posted by traveling_man 5 years ago
I recently saw a clip of what seemed to be an interview. The interviewer asked if the interviewee was a psychic, he said yes then the interviewer slapped him hard in the face and asked why he didn’t see that coming. Then he said to the camera “This is how easy it is to expose a charlatan.” It was hilarious.
Comment icon #27 Posted by Calibeliever 5 years ago
'Witch' is such an emotionally charged word in Western culture. It's just a term that can be applied to any Shaman. Wicca is just one flavor out of many, many pagan beliefs, and a fairly young one at that. Some identify as witches, others don't. Specifically, Tiffany Butch has said she doesn't identify as a witch, that label was given to her by someone else. She strikes me as a new ager who has read a couple of books and knows the names of a few crystals. She put herself in the spotlight and had no idea what she was doing, and now she's stepped in some doo doo.  My .02 is if you are using any... [More]
Comment icon #28 Posted by XenoFish 5 years ago
This can create a very potent nocebo effect if someone were to be especially superstitious. They would most likely fall into confirmation bias and self-fulfilling actions to further reinforce the said "curse".  Magick works, it's all psychological though.
Comment icon #29 Posted by Calibeliever 5 years ago
Absolutely agree, the power of a curse comes from someone's belief in it, whether you believe in manifestation or not.  *snip*
Comment icon #30 Posted by cyclopes500 5 years ago
I'm wondering if she's upset the Canadian and British secret services and Tessa May. Particularly as Queen Elizabeth II was involved in changing Canadian law. England has done it before. HMS Barham was a battleship sunk during WWII and we used the Witchcraft act to jail a woman. Sadly such a useful law no longer applies in the UK. We could set up and frame so many people. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Helen_Duncan.
Comment icon #31 Posted by Hankenhunter 5 years ago
A new girlfriend talked me into a psychic reading many years ago. As I sat there, I kept repeating, "this is stupid" in my head over and over till she was done. She just kept on with the vague generalities the whole time. My girlfriend was excited ever the reading and when I told her what I did, she said it doesn't work that way. I was single the next day. Hank
Comment icon #32 Posted by third_eye 5 years ago
It was the witches' fault ... ~
Comment icon #33 Posted by eight bits 5 years ago
Pretty much there still is. The post-Duncan charge, I am told, was mainly to clarify that religious spiritualism was not illegal (even if, being a religion, it might include the sacred rite of taking up a collection during its services. Evidently, the dead need money just as much as God does). I think there remains some interest in overturning the Duncan conviction. The difficulty is that it seems righteous on review. It was no secret that the Royal Navy withheld notification of next of kin of crew serving on ships lost in battle for a time, in order to deprive the enemy of vital intelligence.... [More]
Comment icon #34 Posted by White Crane Feather 5 years ago
Silly. Let people spend their money they way they want. I wonder if any of the acusers or prosecutors are Christian. I wonder if they will prosecute preachers for prospertiy gospel? 
Comment icon #35 Posted by TripGun 5 years ago
What about the crime of extortion using fear?


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