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A B.C. Supreme Court judge has ordered the National Post to pay climate scientist Andrew Weaver $50,000 in damages in a defamation suit over articles published in 2009 and 2010.

At the time of publication, Mr. Weaver was the Canada Research Chair in climate modelling and analysis in the School of Earth and Ocean Sciences at the University of Victoria. He had also contributed to the United Nations’ Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. Mr. Weaver is currently a Green Party MLA.

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The defamation suit focused on four articles by journalists Terence Corcoran, Peter Foster and Kevin Libin. Mr. Weaver said his character had been publicly defamed in the series of articles that suggested he was attempting to deflect attention away from the hacking of climate scientists’ computer systems, a controversy dubbed “Climategate” by many commentators.

In her Thursday ruling, Justice Emily Burke concluded the writers “espouse a skeptical view of climate change” that led them to deliberately create a negative impression of Mr. Weaver.

She declined to award punitive damages as she did not find malice in the published articles.

The National Post is studying the ruling before making any decision on an appeal.

National Post