A judge has ordered a former B.C. environmental campaigner to pay $15,000 plus costs to a Vancouver Island aquaculture company for maliciously defaming it in 2005.

The B.C. Supreme Court judge said the language Don Staniford used in two press releases he prepared for the group Friends of Clayoquot Sound was inflammatory and his claims were untrue — and he knew it.

Staniford had falsely claimed that the Tofino-based Creative Salmon Company used antibiotics and another chemical, malachite green, on its farmed Chinook salmon. 

Staniford has since left Canada for his native Scotland, and the general manager of Creative Salmon said he's not counting on collecting the defamation award. 

But Spencer Evans said the lawsuit was never about the money; it was about the integrity of the company and its staff.

"It hurts them personally when they see in the media that their company is a consumer fraud and a liar and a cheat. It goes right to the heart of each and every staff member," he said. "And, I mean, we feel we should be rewarded for what we're doing, not punished."

Evans is hoping the ruling will force all environmental groups to be fair and accountable in any future anti-aquaculture campaigns. 

Meanwhile, Staniford's lawyer says an appeal is being considered.