Federal Liberal candidate Dan Veniez on Tuesday (April 26) filed a notice of civil claim for defamation in B.C. Supreme Court against Conservative candidate John Weston for what Veniez called "a continuing shadow campaign of libel and misinformation."
The suit alleges Veniez was defamed in a YouTube video that was linked to Weston's campaign Facebook page, John Weston Nation, and in a letter from Paul Veltmeyer, a former employee of the Skeena Group, of which Veniez was president until September 2004.
Veltmeyer and the creators of the YouTube video, identified only as John and Jane Doe, are named as co-defendants in the Veniez court filing.
Weston has yet to file a statement of defence, but in a statement issued to the media on Wednesday (April 27), he refuted the defamation claim, adding, "Daniel Veniez's threat to sue is about desperate politics, not about law."
Weston said neither he nor his campaign team was involved in the production of the YouTube video, which he said "has been widely circulated." He also suggested that questions about Veniez's business dealings with Skeena Group remained when the campaign began last month.
The questions, Weston said, involve the issue of employee pensions that were lost when Skeena declared bankruptcy. Veniez, who denies he was in any way responsible for any such pension shortfalls, last week accused the Weston campaign of "engaging in an outrageous smear campaign in a desperate attempt to protect his seat."
In September 2009, Veniez was acclaimed as the Liberal Party's candidate in the West Vancouver-Sunshine Coast-Sea to Sky Country riding.
"Had Mr. Veniez gone through a nomination process, he could have cleared up these issues in advance of our federal election rather than responding angrily with hollow threats of legal action against political opponents, such as myself," Weston said. "Ultimately, Mr. Veniez may take issue with the public record, but this does not involve me or my campaign."
Veniez's court filing came six days after he sought an apology from Weston, claiming that at an all-candidates' forum in the riding, people wearing Weston buttons and T-shirts "were openly distributing copies of an email claiming that Veniez was in some way responsible for pension shortfalls incurred when the former Skeena Cellulose operation in Prince Rupert went into bankruptcy."
David Bromley, Weston's campaign manager, said in a statement issued on April 21, "We deny Mr. Veniez's claims. At no time did this campaign provide supporters with any materials at any all-candidates' meetings regarding Dan Veniez and his involvement with New Skeena Cellulose."
Bromley told The Chief in a telephone interview April 21 that the Weston campaign also had nothing to do with the YouTube video clip about Veniez' past dealings with Skeena and his position on the issue of protection of pensions of former Nortel employees.
After emails pre-dating Bromley's comments to The Chief appeared with Bromley's name at the bottom and a link to the YouTube video, Bromley on Monday (April 25) clarified his remarks, saying he meant to say that the Weston campaign had nothing to do with the production of the video.
He admitted, though, that after checking to ensure the video's authenticity, he had emailed a link to the video to a list of Weston supporters for an electronic newsletter called "campaign confidential."
Bromley said he decided to do that after Veniez was asked a question about the issue at an April 17 candidates' forum in West Vancouver.
"It was distributed to our supporters on a confidential basis," Bromley said.
Asked whether some Weston supporters might have distributed it to some people who weren't on the "confidential" list, Bromley said he didn't know.
"My question to everybody [on the list] was that everyone should make up their own minds," he said.
According to the April 26 statement from the Veniez campaign team, affidavits have been sworn by attendees at the all-candidates' meeting confirming that they witnessed Weston campaign workers distributing the printed materials. In addition, a screen shot of Weston's Facebook comment was captured before its deletion.
According to the Veniez court filing, Weston's comment said, "I was not aware of these details of Dan Veniez's actions with Skeena a Corporation that went into bankruptcy and forfeited its unprotected employee pensions but not before he withdrew >$200K in personal wages himself. If you intend to support him, please watch this video so you stand informed."
The Veniez court filing alleges that the linking of the video and comments by Weston "constitute a publication by adoption and republication of the contents" of the video and therefore "an endorsement/approval of the contents" by Weston.
The filing of the notice for defamation follows last week's official complaint filed by the Veniez campaign to Elections Canada.
With files from Ian Jacques/Coast Reporter
