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TORONTO — A noted veterans activist can proceed with his defamation suit against the former minister of veterans affairs after Ontario’s top court ruled Friday that a deputy judge in small claims court had no authority to throw out the claim without a hearing on its merits.

In its decision, the Court of Appeal ordered the $25,000 libel suit Sean Bruyea brought against Seamus O’Regan back to small claims court for trial.

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“If the government is so confident that they did not personally attack and defame me, then please let the case go to trial,” Bruyea said after the ruling.

Bringing these technical motions in small claims court is frankly abusive and detracts from the real case at hand

Bruyea, of Ottawa, sued O’Regan for an article in the Hill Times on Feb. 26, 2018. In the column, the then-veterans affairs minister took aim at Bruyea for criticizing a Liberal government decision to give veterans with service-related injuries the choice of a lump-sum payment or life-time pension.

Among other things, O’Regan accused Bruyea of lying about the program to suit his personal agenda.