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The CBC and its investigative news program Fifth Estate is being sued by the Iglesia Ni Cristo Church of Christ (INC) after officials said a Nov. 11 broadcast Church of Secrets defamed their church.

In a 17-page statement of claim to be formally filed on Monday at Manitoba Court of Queen’s Bench, the church claims the broadcast and an accompanying online article “portray INC and its affiliates as having had involvement in inappropriate activities, including intimidation, kidnapping, murder, and financial wrongdoing. These allegations are malicious and have impugned the integrity, reputation and character of INC and its affiliates.”

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“Even in their program, they admit that their whole show was without evidence and it was a very slanderous show against the Church of Christ or the Iglesia Ni Cristo and we just want vindication,” said Rod Bruno, a Toronto-based minister and church spokesperson. “We’re asking for the CBC to look better into their facts and to consider issuing a public apology to the Church of Christ for the damage they have done in creating an uproar even in social media by also posting their program there where people have said very malicious things about the church without even really knowing anything about the church but only what they saw on the Fifth Estate.”