The lawyer for a former West Vancouver MP who is suing The Province newspaper over an article published about him verbally sparred with a former reporter in court this week over whether she did enough to verify facts secretly provided by a political opponent.
Former Liberal MP Blair Wilson is suing The Province, former reporter Elaine O’Connor, former Liberal MLA Judi Tyabji Wilson, her company Tugboat Enterprises and blogger Steve Janke for defamation, saying untrue statements published or circulated to party members about his business debts and alleged federal Election Act irregularities destroyed his political career.
The defendants have denied those allegations.
Province lawyer Dan Burnett told B.C. Supreme Court Justice Jane Dardi in his opening submission the article published about Wilson on Oct. 28, 2007 was substantially true and fair comment on a public official.
This week O’Connor testified, describing how at the time she wrote the article, Wilson had recently been appointed as national revenue critic for the official opposition and presented himself to the public as fiscally responsible.
That wasn’t borne out by some of the information she discovered in her research, said O’Connor, adding it was important to make the public aware of Wilson’s real financial status.
But in cross-examination, Wilson’s lawyer Jay Straith suggested to the reporter she hadn’t done enough to check the facts provided by personal and political enemies of Wilson’s, who were the main sources of her information. Those people included Wilson’s father-in-law William Lougheed – who was locked in a legal battle with his adoptive daughter, Wilson’s wife, over her late mother’s will at the time, said Straith –. and Neil McIver, the campaign manager for Wilson’s political opponent, West Vancouver Conservative candidate John Weston. “By you not checking things out directly, the Lougheeds and Neil McIver were able to use you,” said Straith.
O’Connor testified she trusted that the Lougheeds were acting in good faith and that she had done her best to verify as many facts as possible. In his questions, Straith suggested that contrary to suggestions in the article, Wilson didn’t owe any debts to the Lougheeds because they had been repaid.
But O’Connor replied there were still significant mortgages on properties registered to Wilson’s wife that Wilson also had an interest in, which were being used to prop up Wilson’s failing businesses. That was of public interest, she said.
In his questions, Straith also criticized O’Connor for writing that a “citizen of the riding” had written the anonymous complaint letter to Elections Canada alleging Elections Act violations by Wilson, when she knew it had been written by McIver.
“I could not as a journalist divulge who had given me this information,” said O’Connor. “He was a confidential source.”
“Would you agree with me that the public and the Liberal party would probably have a different take on it if they knew this was the campaign manager for (Conservative candidate) John Weston?” Straith asked.
O’Connor testified that she tried to reach Wilson several times to give him an opportunity to comment on the allegations but “unfortunately he chose not to make himself available. . . I worked with what I had.”
Wilson has since filed a separate defamation suit against McIver, who was called to testify by Straith at the beginning of the trial, and asked to read emails that described how he met with the reporter and passed on information about Wilson.
Liberal strategist Mark Marissen reached an out-of-court settlement with Wilson. The judge dismissed the suit against Lougheed last week after Lougheed died in January, partway through the trial.
