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Bertschi last year filed a libel notice – the first volley in a defamation case – and followed through earlier this month by filing a notice of action and claim against the three Liberals, preserving his right to file a full statement of claim.

He has yet to serve the notice on the defendants.

In the court document, Bertschi claims “defamatory statements and libelous publications made by the Defendants with respect to the Plaintiff’s candidacy in the Liberal Party of Canada’s nomination contest in the electoral riding of Orleans for the upcoming 2015 federal election.”

He does not describe the statements he alleges are defamatory and instead says they were set out in the libel notice he sent in November, which has never been made public. That notice referred to a letter sent by Telford and Gagnier to a limited number of people within the party.

Because of this alleged defamation, Bertschi claims he suffered “diminution of his personal, professional and political reputations.”

None of the allegations in his claim has been proven in court.

Neither Bertschi nor his lawyer, Charles Gibson, could be reached for comment. Broadhurst declined to comment.

When he was disqualified, Bertschi said that he was well on his way to paying off his $50,000 leadership campaign debts and explained that he hadn’t mentioned a libel action against TheDirty.com because it had been abandoned before he filed his candidacy papers.

The Orleans nomination fight is not the first to end up in a defamation lawsuit. Toronto Liberal hopeful Christine Innes and her husband, former Liberal MP Tony Ianno, sued Trudeau and Ontario campaign co-chair David MacNaughton over a letter accusing her campaign of strong-arm tactics and blocking her candidacy.

Trudeau’s aides faced allegations that they had blocked Innes to protect their preferred candidate, MP Chrystia Freeland, from a nomination fight in a newly formed Toronto riding.

— With a file from Gary Dimmock.

gmcgregor@ottawacitizen.com

Twitter.com/glen_mcgregor