VANCOUVER – Former premier Bill Vander Zalm won’t have to pay double legal costs to the man he was found guilty of defaming or issue a public apology, says a B.C. Supreme Court judge.
Judge Laura Gerow said Tuesday that Vander Zalm will not be required to publish an apology that former conflict of interest commissioner Ted Hughes wanted in four major British Columbia newspapers.
Earlier this month, a jury found Vander Zalm, 77, libelled Hughes in his 2008 autobiography, “Bill Vander Zalm: For the People,” and ordered the ex-premier to pay $60,000 in damages.
Before the week-long trial, the former Social Credit premier offered Hughes $25,000 and a written apology, which Hughes’ lawyer called “mealy mouthed” during submissions.
Hughes, 84, wanted the apology to be read in court and published in the front sections of the four daily newspapers, saying his reputation had been tarnished by Vander Zalm’s “shocking” allegations in the book.
In her ruling, Gerow said the publication costs for the apology Hughes sought were unknown, that not all the allegedly defamatory passages were found to have libelled Hughes and that Vander Zalm had only two days to accept the offer.
Get daily National news
After the guilty verdict on Feb. 9, Gerow issued an injunction that required Vander Zalm to immediately stop selling any more copies of the book that contain the offending passages.
Jurors found that eight of 11 passages Hughes complained about were defamatory.
Vander Zalm will still have to pay Hughes’ legal costs, but the former commissioner’s lawyer, Geoffrey Gomery, said outside court that he doesn’t know what that will amount to, saying he wouldn’t reveal the cost anyway because it’s a private matter.
“I can tell you that in a case of this kind it would be ordinary for costs to be in the range of $35,000 to $40,000,” he said.
But in court, Gomery said Hughes had already incurred $80,000 in costs.
The actual amount will have to be agreed on later by the two sides or decided by a court registrar.
Gerow’s ruling means Hughes may lose money and ended up having to buy the apology through media coverage of the court case.
“I suppose you could look at it that way,” Gomery said of his client, a former deputy B.C. attorney general and Saskatchewan judge who is currently conducting a child-death inquiry for the Manitoba government.
In 1991, Vander Zalm hired Hughes, who was then the acting conflict of interest commissioner, to conduct an inquiry after controversy erupted about the $16-million sale of his Fantasy Gardens theme park to a Taiwanese billionaire.
Hughes’ report, issued April 2 that year, found Vander Zalm mixed his personal business with his political office because he’d arranged a lunch for the buyer of the property with the lieutenant governor and arranged meetings with cabinet ministers.
Vander Zalm resigned immediately, but later wrote in his book that Hughes was self-interested, biased and politically partisan, hoping to land the job of permanent commissioner under the NDP, which won the 1991 election.
The former premier told court that he was subjected to a “strange” inquiry process and that Hughes hired lawyers who were politically and personally opposed to him so he would be brought down.
Hughes was appointed to his permanent job by Rita Johnson, who replaced Vander Zalm.
Comments
Want to discuss? Please read our Commenting Policy first.