The man behind a defamation campaign in the B.C. traffic control industry will have to pay one third of a $1.7-million civil penalty, a B.C. Supreme Court judge has ruled.
Justice Anita Chan has ordered that Remon Hanna pay $576,564.19 out of the total $1,729,692.58 in damages and interest, which resulted from a libel case against Valley Traffic Systems (VTS), Philip Jackman, Trevor Paine, and Hanna.
Valley Traffic, once a Langley-based company, and several of its senior executives were found liable for defaming Raoul Malak, head of the company’s rival, the Ansan Group.
Around 2012, the two companies were in contention for a major contract with BC Hydro for traffic control services.
Hanna had previously worked for Malak at the Ansan group, but the two had a falling out.
Hanna offered his services to Valley Traffic Systems, and was paid $2.4 million. He then created multiple defamatory websites with names like “Raoul Malak Uncovered” and “Ansan Traffic Group Exposed,” filled with false allegations of criminal wrongdoing.
Both Hanna and other Valley Traffic senior executives, including former company president and owner Jackman, sent links to the articles to prominent people, including officials with Langley City and Township, the City of Maple Ridge, and Telus. Hanna sent emails to then-premier Christy Clark and longtime Langley MLA and provincial cabinet minister Rich Coleman.
Malak sued for defamation.
After the verdict of the first trial, in 2017, was partly overturned on appeal, a 2023 trial found Hanna, VTS, Jackman, and Paine all liable collectively for damages and ordered them to pay.
After losing their appeal of the second trial, VTS, Jackman, and Paine paid the $1.7 million in damages in early 2025.
But Hanna, who participated in the first trial, did not take part in the second. The other defendants then took him to court, asking the judge to order him to pay his share. Hanna again did not respond, and the court found against him in a default judgment. The only remaining question was how much of the $1.7 million he should pay.
Jackman and Paine’s lawyers argued that Hanna should be responsible for up to 100 per cent of the damages, since he was the creator of the defamatory websites and emails.
Justice Chan disagreed.
“Mr. Jackman, Mr. Paine, and Mr. Hanna were found to be part of a common design to defame Mr. Malak,” Chan wrote in her April 14 ruling. She said the B.C. Court of Appeal had already rejected the arguments they made to “push the liability completely to Mr. Hanna.”
The fact that Hanna profited from his defamatory work does not matter, the judge said.
“While they argue Mr. Hanna profited $2.4 million from the defamatory statements, they neglect their role – they paid Mr. Hanna $2.4 million to create and distribute the defamatory material.
“In my view, there is no basis to differentiate the degree of fault of Mr. Jackman, Mr. Paine, and Mr. Hanna. Each of them should share equally in the payment of damages, with each paying one third of the damages,” the judge ruled.