Libel Cases
In 1988, Levant wrote a Reform Party fundraising letter in which he criticized Alberta Progressive Conservative Senator Ron Ghitter. Ghitter sued for defamation and in 2000, Canadian Alliance MP Rob Anders and Levant admitted liability and issued a formal apology and undisclosed damages to settle the suit.
According to Levant, after the HRC cases against him were dismissed, "the most aggressive members of the human rights industry proceeded to punish by filing over 20 law society complaints and five defamation suits against . ... the point of all these lawsuits just to bury in an avalanche of paperwork and bills, to get to shut up. So far, it ain't working."
The Law Society of Alberta had found that Levant violated the following rules of professional conduct: to "respect and uphold the law in personal conduct", to "seek to improve the justice system", to not "act in a manner that might weaken public respect for the law", to be "courteous and candid", and to not "harass any person or discriminate against any person" on various prohibited grounds and ordered Levant to attend a "mandatory conduct advisory" after which the matter was dropped.
As a result of one lawsuit, Levant was ordered to pay $25,000 to Giacomo Vigna, a Canadian Human Rights Commission lawyer, for libelling him with "reckless indifference" in his blog. Justice Robert Smith ruled that Levant "spoke in reckless disregard of the truth and for an ulterior purpose of denormalizing the Human Rights Commission across Canada which makes his statements malicious in that sense" and ordered Levant to remove the libellous materials from his blog.
Lawyer Richard Warman is also suing Levant as well as Kathy Shaidle, Kate McMillan of Small Dead Animals and several other conservative bloggers for libel over statements made about Warman on Free Dominion. Levant says this "lawsuit isn't logical, or serious. It's a nuisance suit."
Levant is also being sued by Warren Kinsella for libel, asking for $5,000,000. Levant has called Kinsella's suit "laughable".
Read more about this topic: Ezra Levant
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