BC MLA Andrew Weaver wins defamation suit against National Post

VANCOUVER — A B.C. judge has awarded $50,000 in damages to a politician and leading climate scientist after he sued the National Post for defamation.

 

Andrew Weaver sued the newspaper, its publisher and several writers over four articles that were published in late 2009 and early 2010, which he alleged implied he was "untrustworthy, unscientific and incompetent."

 

Weaver is now a Green party member of B.C.'s legislature, but at the time he was a University of Victoria professor whose research largely focused on climate change.

 

He alleged the articles implied he tried to divert public attention from a scandal involving the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change by linking the fossil fuel industry to break-ins at his office, and that he distorted and concealed scientific data.

 

The newspaper argued the articles were about Weaver's public actions and words, not his character, and that they were protected by the defence of fair comment.

 

B.C. Supreme Court Judge Emily Burke ruled the articles were defamatory and awarded $50,000 in general damages, and also ordered the National Post to remove the articles from its electronic databases and publish a full retraction online.