Canadian Newspaper Fined $50,000 for Libel Against Climate Scientist February 7, 2015

In a legal decision that could have wide repercussions, a Canadian judge has brought sudden clarity to hallucinatory twilight world of climate denial media, in the form of a 50,000 dollar two by four upside the head.

More to come on this, for sure. Although it’s a Canadian judge, this is one of the cases that legal observers have been watching for several years to ascertain how many lies it takes before a media outlet can be held to account.

The most notable decision still up in the air is Climate scientist Michael Mann’s suit against the right wing National Review, writer Mark Steyn, and the “think” tank Competitive Enterprise Institute.

UPDATE: Decision online here.

Hill Heat:

The conservative Canadian tabloid National Post and several of its reporters have been found guilty of defaming a climate scientist in numerous articles that attacked his character. The defendants – the Post, its publisher Gordon Fisher, and its journalists Terence Corcoran, Peter Foster, and Kevin Libin – have to retract all their articles about climate scientist Andrew Weaver and pay $50,000 in general damages jointly. She did not find the defendants guilty of malice, merely that they “deliberately created a negative impression of Dr. Weaver” because of their climate-change denial and “have been careless or indifferent to the accuracy of the facts.” Dr. Andrew Weaver is one of the world’s pre-eminent paleoclimatologists, a professor at the University of Victoria since 1992. He has spent considerable time working to educate the public on climate change, writing Keeping Our Cool: Canada in a Warming World in 2008 and acting as a lead author for every IPCC report since 1995. In a series of articles and editorials, the Post claimed Weaver, as “Canada’s warmist spinner-in-chief,” was part of a global scientific conspiracy to concoct fear about fossil-fueled global warming. This “Climategate” smear against varied climate scientists was promoted by conservative media worldwide during the 2009 Copenhagen climate talks. While other scientists were being smeared following the hacking of a set of email correspondence, Weaver was the victim of an office break-in. The Post then falsely claimed Weaver blamed the oil industry for the burglary. The Post also falsely claimed Weaver was trying to dissociate himself from the IPCC and was generally corrupt and deceitful. In 2010, Weaver filed suit against the Post, after years of asking for corrections and retractions. The judge in the case, Justice Emily Burke, found the defendants’ claims that their articles did not defame Weaver’s character completely unconvincing. She found, instead, they lied and defamed Dr. Weaver. According to Burke, they “altered the complexion of the facts and omitted facts sufficiently fundamental that they undermine the accuracy of the facts expressed in the commentary to the extent the facts cannot be properly regarded as a true statement of the facts.”

Huffpost British Columbia:

In a B.C. Supreme Court decision on Thursday, Justice Emily Burke agreed that the defamatory articles would lead a reasonable person to conclude that Weaver is an incompetent, inept, and unethical scientist and professor. “I conclude the defendants have been careless or indifferent to the accuracy of the facts,” Burke wrote in her ruling. “As evident from the testimony of the defendants, they were more interested in espousing a particular view than assessing the accuracy of the facts.” The Post stories reported that Weaver linked break-ins at his University of Victoria office to a plot to hack into emails of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) — which became known as “Climategate” — and suggested that he tried to distract the public from his academic failings in his climate change research. National Post publisher Gordon Fisher, as well as columnists Terence Corcoran, Peter Foster, and Kevin Libin were named in the legal action. The newspaper defended itself by saying the statements were about Weaver’s public actions and words, not his character. The judge disagreed, saying, “The reality is the combination and cumulative effect of these articles is such as to adversely impact on Dr. Weaver’s reputation and integrity as a scientist.” Weaver said Friday he was “absolutely thrilled” with the judgment. “I initiated the lawsuit in 2010 after the National Post refused to retract a number of articles that attributed to me statements I never made, accused me of things I never did, and attacked me for views I never held,” Weaver wrote on his personal Facebook page. “I felt I had to take this matter to court to clear my name and correct the public record. This judgment does precisely that.” Burke ordered the newspaper to remove the offending articles from any electronic database, and to “expressly withdraw any consent given to third parties to re-publish the defamatory expression and to require these third parties to cease re-publication.” Weaver — who is the B.C. Green Party MLA for Oak Bay-Gordon Head — had also asked the court to direct the Post to help him in removing the defamatory stories from any other websites. This was also the first court ruling in Canada to touch just how much responsibility a newspaper has over its readers’ comments on its website, according to the Toronto Star. The judge accepted the Post’s arguments that it removed offensive comments and was not the publisher of them. Media lawyers have also been watching the case for the implications on how articles are spread on the Internet through social media and blogs.

Toronto Globe and Mail:

The Post columns reported that Weaver had pointed to the “fossil fuel industry” as the culprits behind two break-ins in his university office, and that he had implied a connection between the break-ins and Climategate. Weaver said he had told a Post reporter that the fossil fuel industry was benefiting from an overall campaign to discredit climate science, but he never suggested that it was responsible for security breaches at the university. He also alleged that the columns had falsely implied that he had distorted and concealed scientific data in exchange for government funding and to promote a public agenda about climate change. The National Post could not immediately be reached for comment. Former publisher Gordon Fisher, as well as columnists Terence Corcoran, Peter Foster and Kevin Libin, were all named in the legal action. The newspaper argued the articles were about Weaver’s public actions and words, not his character. It also argued they were protected by the defence of fair comment, which essentially allows writers to state opinions if they are in the public interest and based on fact. B.C. Supreme Court Judge Emily Burke disagreed with the defendants, concluding that an ordinary reader would infer defamatory meanings from the columns — including that Weaver was “deceitful” and “avaricious.” “The reality is the combination and cumulative effect of these articles is such as to adversely impact on Dr. Weaver’s reputation and integrity as a scientist,” she wrote. “Imputations of dishonest behaviour on the part of a scientist or professor in that role can constitute defamation.”