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The articles also followed two 2008 break-ins at Weaver’s campus office at the University of Victoria. A recurring theme in the disputed articles was Weaver’s purported suspicion that agents of the oil industry were behind these crimes, and how this could distract the public from turmoil within the climate-science community, brought about by the leak of the East Anglia emails.

As the new ruling describes it, Weaver’s counsel presented each of the four articles as individual expressions of defamation. “There is no pleading of conspiracy or other concerted action implicating the author of one article in the defamatory expression of another,” it reads. The National Post similarly defended each article individually, claiming the defence of fair comment.

Fair comment for columnists and opinion writers is a pillar of journalism and we feared the original judgment could have had a chilling effect

Emphasizing the context of Climategate, Justice Emily Burke found in her original decision the Post’s writers “espouse a skeptical view of climate change” that led them to deliberately create a negative impression of Weaver. She decided that the articles, “read together, were defamatory because they supported inferences that he is professionally incompetent, deceitful and unethical.”

She declined to award punitive damages as she did not find malice in the articles, but she did order the Post to remove them from the internet.

“I conclude as a matter of law the words in the articles at issue were capable of defaming the plaintiff, and as a question of fact they have done so,” Judge Burke’s decision read.

She noted the articles had a “distinct overlap,” and determined their allegedly defamatory meanings “based on a combined reading of all four articles.” The reasons for this approach were not clear to the appeal judges, and by analyzing the articles together — absent a claim of conspiracy or concerted action — Judge Burke made a legal error that can only be fixed by a retrial, the appeal court ruled.

• Email: jbrean@nationalpost.com | Twitter: JosephBrean