Whipped: An Arthur Beauchamp Novel(50)
Justice O’Donnell has granted standing at the hearing to major media outlets.
Ms. Blake is on a pre-campaign swing through Canada’s northern territories, and has not been available to the media. Green Party staff have referred inquiries to the law firm of Tragger, Inglis, Bullingham in Vancouver, which has indicated a statement will be forthcoming from senior trial counsel Arthur Beauchamp, QC, who is Ms. Blake’s husband.
The injunction also bars reporting the specifics of the alleged defamatory comments contained in the complainant’s five-page statement of claim. The Ottawa Citizen and Postmedia have announced they are joining other news agencies, publishers, and broadcast and visual media to oppose continuation of the injunction.
The controversial recording and the massive suit in damages loom darkly over the national political landscape, with the Liberal caucus under their untested new leader, Marcus Yates, planning to support an Opposition motion to bring down the minority Tory government early in the fall session, precipitating what may become one of this nation’s wildest election campaigns.
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CBC News, Thursday, June 27, 4:05 p.m.
CALGARY — Lawyers for Green Party leader Margaret Blake arrived at the Calgary courthouse this afternoon to file a formal statement of defence to the slander action launched against her yesterday by Environment Minister Emil Farquist.
Copies of the document were not made available to the public or the media, pending a ruling expected tomorrow on whether a publication ban will be continued or stayed, but a spokesperson for Blake’s defence team said the team plans to meet the accusation of slander head-on, and will seek to prove that references to Farquist made in a sensational voice recording are founded on fact.
“We believe in the fundamental fairness of Canada’s justice system and shall defend this action with the weapons of truth,” said noted trial lawyer Arthur Ramsgate Beauchamp upon his arrival this afternoon at the Calgary airport.
He said he did not blame Farquist for “seeking home-field advantage” by filing his suit in his own city, and complimented Calgary for being “modern and alive and renowned for its generous and fair-minded citizenry.” He declined to discuss the case further, but when asked if he felt comfortable representing his wife, he joked that she had often found their marriage to be a trial.
Farquist will be bringing on board another of Canada’s top litigators, George Cowper Jr., who is widely regarded as the go-to counsel for defamation actions. Cowper told the CBC he felt privileged to be asked to represent “such a forthright and well-respected political leader.”
Presiding over the injunction hearing tomorrow will be Madam Justice Rachel Cohon-Plaskett, Chief Justice of the Alberta Queen’s Bench and a former counsel of note herself.
Counsel for the CBC and other news media will be at the hearing to oppose the injunction.
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The New York Times, Friday, June 28
by Holly Lorenson
OTTAWA — Canada’s reputation as a land of the bland and uneventful is in tatters this week following explosive allegations that a senior minister in the federal Conservative cabinet played sado-masochistic games with a Russian dominatrix.
Emil Farquist, the environment minister and parliamentary whip, has filed a $50 million slander suit against the leader of Canada’s Green Party, Margaret Blake, over a voice clip in which Ms. Blake, apparently unaware she was being recorded, spoke excitedly to her parliamentary aide, Pierette Litvak.
Farquist, in a brief statement on Wednesday, did not mince words in describing Ms. Blake’s comments as false, irresponsible, and callous. Only one day after his action was filed, counsel for Ms. Blake answered with a statement of defence conceding that she did make the impugned remarks and that they were true “in every word and particular.”
According to Canadian lawyers, the $50 million claim is at least ten times higher than any previous judgment for defamation in Canada.
This is the conversation that has our northern neighbours all atwitter:
Ms. Blake: “Emil Farquist. The sanctimonious prick, he’s into S and M.”
Ms. Litvak: “S and M. I got it. It’s a metaphor. As in Sour and Malicious, right?”
Ms. Blake: “Wrong. Spank me, Mother, I’ve been a bad boy. Weekends with a Russian dominatrix. Svetlana something. Farquist likes giving her pony rides while she swats his ass with a riding whip.”
Ms. Litvak: “Freak out!”
A cautionary female voice then interrupted: “Hey, you guys, be careful.”
It is not clear when or where this inflammatory exchange occurred, and the dominatrix referred to as Svetlana remains a mystery woman. Journalists have been scouring public records in an effort to locate her, but to little avail. A cursory internet search reveals several hundred Svetlanas in Ontario and Quebec alone.
It is hoped details will emerge during a hearing set for today in Calgary, where the slander suit was filed.
The hearing will determine whether the Canadian media — or the Canadian public — will be permanently banned from publishing or repeating that brief to-and-fro, an embargo that would raise eyebrows in the U.S., where First Amendment rights remain paramount.
There is a history of fierce friction between Ms. Blake and Mr. Farquist, whom she has dubbed the “Minister of Environmental Destruction” because of his lukewarm approach to climate change and his support for the continued exploitation of Alberta’s controversial oil sands.