BC MP sued for defamation
p2pnet.net News:- Libel suits are good business for Canadian defamation lawyers, but they don’t reflect very well on our national commitment to free speech.
So says Vancouver media lawyer Dan Burnett.
His observation came in a statement read out at the Freedom of Speech panel in Toronto, last weekend and, “Until reform comes about, we in Canada remain stuck with essentially the antique and unmodified law of libel,” he said.
Now Jaspal Singh Atwal, convicted of the attempted murder of a Punjabi cabinet minister, is accusing former MP Gurmant Grewal, Vancouver Sun reporter Kim Bolan, the Sun’s publisher and parent company Canwest Media Networks of deliberately discrediting his reputation.
“Bolan wrote articles concerning a reference letter for Atwal written by Grewal,” says Vancouver’s CKNW, going on:
“In a Writ filed in BC Supreme Court, Atwal claims the articles inaccurately portray him as a terrorist and an assassin. He is claiming damages for what he says is humiliation resulting from the publishing of the articles.”
A Vancouver Sun story on Canada.com" says, "Atwal was described in parole-board records as the leader of a group of four members of the International Sikh Youth Federation who ambushed Malkiat Singh Sidhu on an isolated Vancouver Island road," continuing, "Sidhu survived the attempt on his life, but was later assassinated in India. Atwal admitted to the National Parole Board that he was the gunman who fired several shots at Sidhu, two of which injured the man who was attending his nephew’s wedding in B.C."
(Thanks, Rob)
Also See:
Freedom of Speech – p2pnet’s Toronto trip, August 8, 2006
CKNW – Atwal sues former MP, Sun reporter and her employer, August 8, 2006
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August 12th, 2006 at 8:58 am
Given the facts in this article, the lwayer who filed the lawsuit should be punished somehow by the court for filing a trivial time wasting lawsuit. A five year ban from the courts would be appropriate.
Oh, I forgot. Courts and lawyer-in-disguise judges are in favor of maintining the legal profession as a money making business, and for that, anything goes. An unsolvable conflict of interest as long as to be a judge one must be a lawyer because the laws are too complicated.
BTW, has anyone wondered why the laws are too complicated for non lawyers to understand, when allegedly the very same laws are to be obeyed by the non lawyer people? Because some influential lawyers, lawyer organizations and lawyer politicians need the current law-business model to make a very good (profitable) living.
Rafael Venegas
http://www.gvenegas.com