Tim Felger vs. Danny Plecas

ABBOTSFORD – Tim Felger and the son of one of his “intellectual adversaries” were involved in a physical confrontation Tuesday outside of a high school in Abbotsford that sprawled onto the street and eventually received the attention of local police.

Danny Plecas, 17, and Felger, 52, squared off in the parking lot next to Yale Secondary School. Plecas spotted Felger handing out flyers to kids on their way home from school and walked over to confront Felger, who has had some outstanding issues with his father, Daryl Plecas.

According to Felger, Plecas and a few other kids approached Tim and asked him what he was doing and what he thought about Daryl Plecas, a Criminology professor at the local University College of the Fraser Valley. Felger, involved in a controversy with Dr. Plecas last fall about Plecas’ decision not to attend a debate he promised he would attend, did not mince his words when asked for an opinion on Dr. Plecas.

“To tell you the truth, I think he’s a propaganda whore whose beliefs harm the community,” Felger answered the 17-year old’s question. The young man did not react well and stepped very close to Felger and demanded he take the statement back and show some respect to the boy’s father. Felger warned the young man to step back. Instead, the boy stepped closer. Felger warned him again and says he was ignored. There was no warning the third time – Felger admits he hit the boy on the side of the head.

“It’s not always who hits first that starts the fight,” Felger explained later. “When you get into someone’s personal space, like within 3 feet, you’re actually threatening them. When you get within 18 inches, you’re being provocative. And when you get within six inches, that’s right in their personal, intimate space. When you get into this space, you’re provoking a fight.”

Felger believes that’s what young Danny wanted all along, and was “building up the nerve” to punch Felger, except that Felger acted first. According to Felger, Plecas again advanced on him, so he hit the boy again. Then the other kids got involved and a mini-brawl ensued.

Felger estimated there were between 6-8 of them in total. Punches were thrown from both sides and the fight moved onto the street in front of the school. Despite being outnumbered, Felger said he was able to minimize his injuries with some strategic maneuvers.

“The only reason I didn’t get hurt was because it was just a bunch of dumb kids who didn’t understand what they were doing,” Felger said. “They’ll all have black eyes tomorrow and I’m just lucky I didn’t get beat down.”

The police were called but did not charge anyone. Felger was asked to sign a “no-go order”, banning him from being on school property. Felger complied and signed the order but expressed disappointment that the police did not charge Plecas for inciting the fight.

In the scuffle, Felger’s glasses and cell phone were damaged. Afterwards, Felger admitted he was shaken up by the incident. “This was not what I had intended to do,” he said, adding, “All I was doing was handing out flyers.”

Felger admitted they were provocative flyers, asserting on them that Dr. Daryl Plecas was a “propaganda whore”. He was hoping to recruit some of the local kids to his way of thinking and claimed he had no idea that Danny Plecas attended Yale Secondary School and that he was genuinely surprised to meet him.

Due to the late-breaking nature of this story, we were unable to contact Dr. Plecas for his reaction, though it is safe to assume he will not be happy to learn what has happened. It will undoubtedly exacerbate the existing differences between himself and Tim Felger, who insisted he didn’t want to cause any trouble and only reacted because he had to.

“It was determined before I did anything that Danny was going to fight,” Felger said. “And you know, I always try to walk away from trouble when I can. That may not sound like me, but when I was in jail, the first 30 days I had over 70 opportunities to get into a fight and on the 31^st day I finally got into one because I couldn’t get away. I’m not afraid to run, but I’m also not afraid to fight. There are no winners in a fight, only two losers.”