Alberta Premier Jason Kenney has filed his statement of defence in response to a defamation lawsuit by five environmental organizations, offering a grab-bag of defences for the comments that sparked the dispute.
Among them, Mr. Kenney argues that by not specifically naming the groups he attacked in his social media comments about the findings of the so-called “Public Inquiry into Anti-Alberta Energy Campaigns,” which his government initiated, he therefore didn’t identify them.
“The Facebook Post and the Tweet do not mention any of the Plaintiffs, nor do they link to the Web Page or the Key Findings Document,” says the statement of defence.
That’s an interesting approach, since all five organizations were named in the report of inquiry commissioner Steve Allan, along with many others. So was the statement of defence’s use of the “responsible communication on a matter of public interest defence.” Introduced into Canadian jurisprudence in 2009, that defamation defence is generally thought of as being for journalists, bloggers and the like who make honest errors while intending to accurately report on matters of public interest.
If Mr. Kenney succeeds in extending that protection to public figures and their issues managers who publish acerbic tweets, that will be a significant development in the law of defamation.
Beyond that, the defences offered seem to this non-lawyer to be pretty standard boilerplate stuff: nothing that was said was defamatory, the statements made were all true, the words complained of were a fair comment on a matter of public interest, there was no damage to the plaintiffs’ reputations, and there was no malice.
Indeed, the statement of defence suggests, the words complained of may have helped the plaintiffs – “the Plaintiffs’ reputations have increased among activists who oppose oil and gas development, throughout Canada and elsewhere.”
Readers should remember that in defamation law, the term malice is used a little more broadly than in ordinary discourse. “As the Premier of Alberta, Premier Kenney has a responsibility to advocate for Albertans,” the statement of defence argues. “This responsibility applies particularly where outside interests engage in coordinated campaigns that (intentionally or not) threaten the economic prosperity of Alberta and Albertans. This was the factual context for the Facebook Post and Tweet.”
In their statement of claim early last month, the five plaintiff organizations alleged Mr. Kenney personally deliberately misrepresented the findings of Mr. Allan’s report, which found no wrongdoing by any organization, with the intention of defaming them.
Like some of the premier’s arguments, suing a government for defamation is unusual. Nevertheless, the Alberta Proceedings Against the Crown Act states that “the Crown is subject to all those liabilities in tort to which, if it were a person of full age and capacity, it would be subject.” (In the United States, interestingly, no judicial remedy exists when a federal official defames someone.)
Asked about the statement of defence at a news conference in Canmore yesterday, Mr. Kenney responded snippily, telling reporters, “I find it fascinating that they were willing to dump millions of dollars into political and legal efforts to undermine Canadian energy exports and they’re now shocked that somebody’s actually shining a spotlight on those efforts.”
“Obviously, we’re not going to apologize, we’re simply telling the truth about what they’ve done,” he said. “They should apologize. They should apologize for allowing the world’s worst regimes to have a larger share of global energy markets.”
The plaintiffs’ lawyer, Paul Champ, well known for his recent efforts to get the so-called Freedom Convoy to stop honking their horns and go home during their illegal occupation of Ottawa, told the Canadian Press the statement of defence means the fight likely will end up in court.
It’s pretty hard to find a flaw in that assessment.
The five plaintiffs are West Coast Environmental Law, the Dogwood Initiative, Stand.earth, Environmental Defence Canada, and the Western Canada Wilderness Committee.
The organizations are seeking $15,000 each in actual damages and $500,000 in punitive damages from Mr. Kenney, “to dissuade him and other Canadian public officials from using the power of their office to bully their critics.”
Perhaps a better defense for Kenney would be a more honest one. He has been under a lot of stress at work and is concerned about losing his job. This stress and fear has led him to make a number of bad decisions and exercise poor judgement. After that it would probably an appropriate time to then also apologize for misrepresenting Mr. Allan’s report findings.
Of course, Kenney as always seems reluctant to admit his mistakes and will probably continue to deny them and fight this lawsuit. Perhaps he has never heard the saying that when you find yourself in a deep hole the first thing you should do is to stop digging. So, instead he just keeps on at it.
Wow! Pretty small potatoes here. Just a (very) small rounding error on kkkenney’s normal grift.
It’s a wonder that he bothers at all. Not a penny of this will come out of his pocket. As is usual with this crooked carpet-bagger it will cost much more to entertain his petulance and ideology than to just let it go.
He is a serial grifter and in this he very much resembles his hero, that other orange serial grifter and grand loser, donald tRump.
According to Kenney’s bible, climate action threatens the “economic prosperity of Alberta and Albertans”. And climate change does not?
Wildfires have consumed towns in AB and B.C.. Droughts cripple agriculture. Floods destroy infrastructure. Heat melts glaciers the Prairies depend on for water. Acid rain and mountain pine beetle infestations destroy timber. Warming waters and acidification destroy fisheries. Wildfire smoke, smog, and heatwaves put people in hospital or six feet under.
Kenney’s narrow definition of prosperity excludes 99% of reality. He conflates the oil industry’s interests with the public interest. Wealth that destroys our future is illusory.
If action to prevent climate disaster threatens the “economic prosperity of Alberta and Albertans”, what does that say about our definition of prosperity?
Kenney: “[Environmental groups] should apologize for allowing the world’s worst regimes to have a larger share of global energy markets.”
No environmentalist advised Europe to depend on Putin for oil & gas.
Shell, BP, and Exxon filled their pockets in Russia and enriched Putin’s govt. Not Greenpeace.
“Canadian banks, insurance companies have poured millions into Russian oil and gas” (National Observer, March 2nd 2022).
Not Dogwood.
https://www.nationalobserver.com/2022/03/02/news/canadian-banks-insurance-companies-pouring-millions-russian-oil-gas
Doubling down on fossil fuels not only leads to climate disaster, but also keeps the world subject to the market manipulations of OPEC and Russia, regardless of where nations source their oil & gas.
If the world followed the advice of environmentalists, IPCC scientists, and the IEA, the EU would have accelerated the shift to renewables a long time ago. Sidelining petro-dictators like Putin and oil-soaked politicians like Kenney.
I’m surprised Kenney didn’t claim the privilege of public office, because nothing the Premier does IS illegal.
That would have been a Nixonian turn that Kenney I’m sure would have loved to apply. But even that may be a bridge too far.
Judging by Brett Wilson’s raging tweets from yesterday, you would have thought he was warning of a Russian invasion into Alberta.
Wilson’s yammering, incoherent, and wildly nutty commentary was first-rate word salad. In a nutshell, he argued Kenney is always right, you’re always wrong, and Paul Champ is an ambulance-chasing hack, whose license should be pulled and burned. There’s nothing more amusing than a stinking too rich with a severe persecution complex. I mean the oil industry got nearly $2B in public funds to clean up its abandoned wells — you’d think he’d be a happier man by now?
But no. Wilson wants to defend Kenney to the end because he jammed a lot of money into making Kenney premier. And he’s determined to spend a lot of money keeping Kenney in the premiership. This guy is as loony as Peter Pocklington, except he actually is wealthy and with a big mouth to match.
Maybe we should phone in to his talk radio show and ask him about this and other important issues of the day. We know that our questions won’t get to air because his radio show (at our expense) is rigged, like so many things these days. Too bad. I was looking forward to being reverse Jack Webster with a Glaswegian accent. What would happen if a bunch of trucks parked outside the station and honked their horns non-stop? Nothing, right? Just asking, not suggesting.
Every time Kenney opens his mouth he’s going to incriminate himself. But then again, it’s hard to defend the indefensible.
The unfortunate thing is that we will end up paying for this, because the head honcho of the UCP is grasping at straws, and won’t accept defeat.
Kenney AND the environuts are ALL equally to blame here. Good job wasting the peoples time and money. Those enviro groups are EQUALLY as FOREIGN funded as the convoy was, OF WHICH IS NOT ILLEGAL, so who cares???? Canadians are sooooooo whiny.
Your name lacks credibility.
How are the environuts to blame? For advocating environmental and climate protection? Their very reason for being.
Two-year inquiry found no evidence of wrongdoing. Wild goose chase.
The public inquiry made no finding of spreading misinformation. Are ENGOs to blame for telling the truth about AB’s oil industry?
Not a crime to campaign for climate action. Not a crime to care about the world we are leaving our grandchildren. Not a crime to raise funds for environmental campaigns — mostly from ordinary Canadians with a small share from foreign sources.
In what alternative universe do ENGOs support oilsands expansion, new pipelines, and spiralling emissions?
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On average $3.4 million a year was divided among 21 ENGOs in support of a campaign already underway to oppose oil and gas expansion and rising emissions (2003 – 2019).
Kenney’s “War Room” costs up to $30 million a year.
Kenney’s “public” inquiry cost $3.5 million.
“Alberta public inquiry finds no wrongdoing in anti-oilsands campaign” (CP, Oct 21, 2021)
https://globalnews.ca/news/8286266/alberta-energy-minister-releases-steve-allan-report-anti-energy-campaigns/
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“US funding typically contributed 8 to 10% of total annual budgets for smaller ENGOs and a much smaller percentage for larger organizations.”
Sierra Club BC raised $1,252,000 annually over the past 5 years. U.S. funding for energy and climate change activities “averaged 7.5% of the budget over that period, but declined sharply in 2018 and 2019”.
“Greenpeace Canada received 2.2% of its $9 million to $11 million annual budget from U.S. foundations at the height of the Tar Sands Campaign.” (Energi Media)
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Krause reports that “funding from U.S. foundations accounted for roughly 15% of Dogwood Initiative’s total revenue for 2016. With 260,000 supporters, most of whom are Canadian…”
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Krause criticizes Leadnow for accepting $63,000 in funds from U.S. foundations in 2016-17: 0.25% per cent of Leadnow’s revenue for those years.
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“Ecojustice received just over $1-million in foreign donations in the 2017-18 tax year, out of about $7.4-million in total revenue – less than 14%.” (Globe and Mail)
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“Every year, the world’s five largest publicly owned oil and gas companies spend approximately $200 million on lobbying designed to control, delay or block binding climate-motivated policy.”
“Oil And Gas Giants Spend Millions Lobbying To Block Climate Change Policies” (Forbes)
Different story for the “Freedom Convoy”:
“Hacked convoy data shows more than half of donations came from U.S.’
“55.7% of the 92,844 donations made public came from donors in the U.S., while just 39% came from donors located in Canada.
“Of the $8.4 million US in donations detailed in the data, $4.3 million US — or 52.5% of the total — came from Canada, while $3.6 million US (44.2%) came from the U.S.”
https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/convoy-protest-donations-data-1.6351292
What are “Kenney AND [sic] environuts” equally to blame for? The Inquiry into alleged anti-Alberta energy campaigns was obviously a waste of “the peoples [sic] time and money.” But given environmentalists are not funded by the public treasury like Kenney’s Inquiry was, how did they waste people’s time and money?
Did you read the Inquiry Report? It found there was no substantial foreign funding of Canadian environmentalists so, leaving aside whatever foreign funding the “Freedom Convoy” got, the question remains: did you read the Report?
Did you not understand that the Ottawa, Windsor, and Coutts were in fact illegal? Or, for you, is it like you say: “who cares????” When perps are convicted in courts of law for a variety of offences related to the pretend truckers’ protest, will you also decree those “NOT ILLEGAL [SIC]” at the top of your lungs? Will that be equally “so who cares????”
Finally: are you Canadian?
Hey Reasonable,
Good people on both sides, eh?
Are you familiar with the concept of false equivalence? Somehow, I don’t think you are.
If this occupies his blueslime nibs for even a day
and prevents him from his continual destruction of the Albertan way of life
then it will be worth it
K-Boy’s defamation defences are perverse—including, to no one’s surprise, that he’s the victim here. Political opportunist that he is, however, we should hope he doesn’t let this little scrape slip past without leaving politics a better place than he helped make it.
Pray the civil action against him will deter any future politician from maliciously defaming anyone (much less organizations pledged to making the global ecosystem a better place for all than they found it), or from defending against an accusation of defamation by defaming the plaintiffs even more. Is that too much to ask?
Turning divisive perversity into helpful irony could be K-Boy’s pièce de résistance, should he choose to take it—a task so easy he really ought to since there are so few other achievements in his career and certainly none that could compare. I sincerely wish him every success in this regard. And so should every Albertan whose public treasury will be paying Kenney’s legal bills.
Recall he admitted he was wrong about lifting pandemic restrictions too soon but never apologized. Yet, getting halfway to contrition is a start, and the rarity of acknowledging his undeniably tragic mistake is a sign of hope.
He could have avoided the suit by simply apologizing to the orgs he defamed. Let us hope he ends up having to apologize twice: once to the plaintiffs and once to Albertans. It might even be cathartic.
And, better yet, it might be deterrent. Even I would commend K-Boy if this could be accomplished—that is, even if he’s forced to do it. Now that’s irony, no?
Kenney’s defense: I fired my shotgun into the crowd. I was not aiming at anyone in particular. I am, therefore, not culpable for any injury I may have caused.
“to dissuade him and other Canadian public officials from using the power of their office to bully their critics.”
That’s going to open a bit of a can of worms one would think as it could be said that that is what most elected officials do. Any criticism from an elected official would then be considered bullying. As voters, regardless of who you vote for, generally want those they vote for to bully critics maybe you just don’t call it that. If Notley gets in in the next election will any criticism of oil and gas supports by her be considered bullying? Following this logic yes it would and make her open to lawsuits.
As the retired oilmen have been saying all along if his lies were true why hasn’t any oil executives stood with him? The truth is they all know it is a pack of lies, and once again Albertans will get to foot the bill, we know he can’t win. What has this fool already cost us? He is the greatest liar we have ever seen and we thought Ralph Klein , Brian Jean and Danielle smith were bad enough.
ALAN K. SPILLER: The UCP definitely comes with a cost, just like Ralph Klein did. Billions and billions of dollars have been flushed down the drain, but sadly, there are people in Alberta who don’t care, and they act like nothing happened, and they don’t like people like us who call them out on it. Where’s the sense in that?