Prosecutor wins libel suit against ex-MLA blogger
Last Updated: Tuesday, September 29, 2009 | 4:29 PM CT
CBC News
A Saskatchewan Crown prosecutor has won a $50,000 defamation lawsuit against a blogger who is a former member of the provincial legislature.
In a recent decision, Queen's Bench Justice Allisen Rothery ruled that Gay Caswell defamed prosecutor Wayne Buckle in her blog, "Mrs. Gay Caswell's Blog."
Buckle is a senior Crown prosecutor working in the La Ronge district office for Saskatchewan Justice.
Caswell, who lives in Brabant Lake in the province's north, is a former Progressive Conservative politician who represented the Saskatoon Westmount constituency from 1982 to 1986. Buckle's lawyer argued Caswell libelled Buckle in March by alleging he "grows and uses marijuana, uses cocaine, has misappropriated funds, been disbarred as a member of the Law Society of Saskatchewan, has breached the public trust and misused his office and is a dishonest and despicable person," the decision said.
"In this case, Buckle has proved that the words written in Caswell's blog are defamatory," Rothery wrote in the decision. "That can be determined from the ordinary meaning of the published words."
Rothery set damages at $50,000, the maximum allowed under the simplified court procedure Buckle followed. She also ordered Caswell to pay $5,000 in Buckle's legal costs.
Under the ruling, Caswell has 60 days to remove from her blog all postings about Buckle.
Caswell didn't attend court on the day the lawsuit was heard, but later told court officials she planned to appeal.
The decision noted that Caswell said in her blog in June that she wouldn't apologize.
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