Longtime Liberal party insider Chuck Rifici has launched a defamation lawsuit against three high-profile Conservative MPs — including the party’s interim leader Rona Ambrose — over social media posts that Rifici argues contain allegations that he was involved in insider stock trading.

Rifici is the co-founder of the marijuana company Canopy Growth (then called Tweed), a company he has since left. He now sits on the board at rival firm Aurora Cannabis and was the Liberal party’s treasurer until last summer.

According to his statement of claim, filed with the Ontario Superior Court on February 28 and first reported by Frank Magazine, he’s seeking $100,000 in damages respectively from Tory MPs Rona Ambrose, Alex Nuttall and Blaine Calkins for defamation, loss of income and loss of business opportunities because of allegations he says the Conservatives made in the House of Commons and later shared on social media.

Rifici claims his reputation has been “seriously prejudiced and his integrity impugned” by a number of tweets and Facebook posts. His statement of claim argues the comments by “these three Conservative Members were part of a series of calculated and coordinated personal attacks” on his integrity.

The story dates back to November 16 last year, when several Canadian medical marijuana companies’ stocks suddenly shot up, halting trading. Canopy Growth’s value went up by $1 billion in the course of a trading day – although it closed lower than it had opened.

That was soon followed by outrage in the Commons from the Conservative benches, where MPs raised the question of whether Liberal insiders were benefitting financially from a leaked copy of the government’s marijuana task force report prior to its publication.

The Tory trio had tweeted links to question period video footage from the House of Commons — which is protected by Parliamentary privilege from libel claims. In those links, Nuttall and Calkins drew links between purported insider stock trading and Rifici in the course of questioning why stock prices suddenly went up. The case would hinge on whether their tweets were defamatory when the MPs’ accounts republished and described the video content.

The statement of claim argues that “the publication of the video footage from the House of Commons on Twitter constitutes a republication of defamatory statements that is not covered by absolute and/or Parliamentary privilege.”

The claim argues that the way Calkins, Nuttall and Ambrose wrote their tweets containing, or linking to, the Commons videos – which mention Rifici by name – was either directly defamatory or served to defame him through innuendo.

Ambrose tweeted in November that “@AlexNuttallMP asked a very important question today,” and linked to the question period video.

Nuttall asked in a tweet: “Are Liberal insiders breaking the law by insider trading on privileged access to information?”

Nuttall also mentioned Rifici on Twitter directly, and linked to his Linkedin profile: “Who is @crifici? Can he tell us why $CGC spiked on Nov. 16 before TSX shut them down? Was marijuana report leaked?”

Calkins had linked to a video in a tweet that reads: “Want to get rich? Find out where well connected Liberals are investing, and do what they do, not what they say …”

A notice of intent to defend was issued March 14 on Ambrose, Nuttall and Calkin’s behalf by the law firm Fasken Martineau DuMoulin LLP.

A statement of defence has not yet been filed. None of the allegations has been proven in court.

Rifici is asking the court for $100,000 in general damages, $50,000 in aggravated damages, another $50,000 in punitive damages, a “complete” retraction, plus unspecified damages, costs and interest.