Biz columnist loses defamation appeal

An appeal of a judge’s ruling that found Vancouver Sun business columnist David Baines had defamed a former senator has been dismissed.

Keith Fraser of The Province writes, “Lawson’s lawyer argued that Baines had crafted the column to imply that Lawson, former Canadian director of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, was corrupt.

“The judge concluded that while Baines was an ‘honest and forthright’ witness, Lawson had established that the words used in the column were defamatory.

“On appeal, the Sun’s lawyers contended that the words complained of were incapable of being defamatory and that the judge was wrong to find that they were.

“They argued that the trial judge had applied the wrong standard of review in the case.

“But in his reasons for judgment released Friday, B.C. Court of Appeal Justice Christopher Hinkson found that there were no such errors.”

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Chris Roush

Chris Roush was the dean of the School of Communications at Quinnipiac University in Hamden, Connecticut. He was previously Walter E. Hussman Sr. Distinguished Professor in business journalism at UNC-Chapel Hill. He is a former business journalist for Bloomberg News, Businessweek, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, The Tampa Tribune and the Sarasota Herald-Tribune. He is the author of the leading business reporting textbook "Show me the Money: Writing Business and Economics Stories for Mass Communication" and "Thinking Things Over," a biography of former Wall Street Journal editor Vermont Royster.