A lawyer for former Alberta premier Jason Kenney was in court Friday, arguing a defamation lawsuit against him should be dismissed.
Kenney and the Alberta government are named in the lawsuit filed by several environmental groups: Environmental Defence, West Coast Environmental Law, Stand.earth, Dogwood and the Wilderness Committee.
The lawsuit stems from the findings of the public inquiry into anti-Alberta energy campaigns and comments made by Kenney.
The groups claim statements made by Kenney and the provincial government “directly contradicted the findings of the final report of the Public Inquiry into Anti-Alberta Energy Campaigns” and that both parties “refused to retract statements and issue an apology.”
The groups claim that statements made in the province’s “key findings” document — which were repeated by Kenney — are defamatory because they “assert environmental groups have deliberately spread ‘misinformation’ about the Alberta oil and gas industry” despite the fact that the inquiry’s commissioner, Steve Allan, made no such finding.
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Allan’s Alberta inquiry report found no organized campaign of misinformation.
Those statements appeared on a government website as well as Kenney’s Facebook page and Twitter feed.
Kenney’s defence says there is no defamation because his remarks don’t identify any of the groups that brought the lawsuit.
“The web page, the Facebook post, and the tweet do not and cannot reasonably be understood to refer to the plaintiffs, as alleged or at all,” says the statement of defence, filed March 2022, in Edmonton Court of Queen’s Bench.
“The Key Findings document does not allege that any of these organizations disseminated misinformation, or otherwise indicate that they participated in the decade-long campaign of misinformation mentioned above… The Facebook post and the tweet do not mention any of the plaintiffs, nor do they link to the web page.”
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As a result of Kenney and the government’s statements, the groups say they, as well as individuals, were targeted on social media and some even received death threats.
The groups are seeking $15,000 each in actual damages and an additional $500,000 in punitive damages against Kenney.
Read more: Kenney government launches inquiry into foreign-funded groups that criticize Alberta’s oil industry
Kenney’s lawyer argued Friday the case should be dismissed because in three out of four documents, the plaintiffs are not directly named. The judge has reserved her decision.
- With files from The Canadian Press
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