The lawyer for the Quesnel city councillor sued for defamation by the wife of Mayor Ron Paull says the lawsuit should be dismissed because Pat Morton’s real aim is to punish and suppress political expression.
On May 12 in Quesnel, before BC Supreme Court Justice Ronald Tindale, Anja Nel said the public interest in Coun. Laurey-Anne Roodenberg’s expression far outweighs the public interest in allowing Morton’s lawsuit to proceed.
“The plaintiff’s claim is not an attempt to vindicate her reputation, but rather an effort to control the narrative surrounding how concerns about her conduct were raised and addressed within the community,” Nel told Tindale.
Morton took offence at Roodenberg’s reaction to her purchase and distribution of copies of “Grave Error: How the Media Misled Us (and the Truth About Residential Schools).” The book questions the 2015 Truth and Reconciliation Commission report and the unverified 2021 claims of 215 child burials at the Kamloops Indian Residential School. A ground-penetrating radar specialist later said her equipment detected 200 “anomalies” at the site, which has not been excavated.
Nel said Roodenberg, the council Indigenous relations liaison, expressed herself on a matter of significant public interest, “including reconciliation, Indigenous-municipal relations and institutional responses to the circulation of material that questions and undermines the suffering caused to Indigenous peoples in Canada by the residential school system.”
In last May’s notice of civil claim, Morton accused Roodenberg of conduct that was “not only defamatory, but malicious, politically motivated and designed to publicly discredit me despite knowing or being reckless as to the truth.”
Nel said Morton continues to be free to share the book and invite discussion about its contents, but Roodenberg’s application to quash the lawsuit is aimed at protecting her right to express opinions on a matter of significant public interest.
Nel argued Morton cannot establish the existence of harm or that any alleged harm was caused by Roodenberg’s statements. Instead, she said, Morton invited criticism of her actions, which were magnified because of her marriage to the mayor, who chairs a council that has partnerships with area First Nations. Nel said her client relies on the defences of fair comment and qualified privilege.
“The plaintiff’s conduct in distributing the book was morally reprehensible and came from a place meant to harm First Nations communities and there were two occasions — as opposed to one — in which the city had to reaffirm its memorandum of understanding with the Lhtako as a result of the plaintiff’s conduct,” Nel said.
In court, a recording of a city council meeting was played in which Roodenberg criticized Morton and said she did not respect the mayor or council’s policies and actions. Paull gave a statement in support of land acknowledgements and efforts toward reconciliation, and even cited co-hosting the 2024 BC Winter Games with the Lhtako Dene Nation. Paull also said he did not agree with what his wife was doing in the community.
The hearing happened less than two weeks after Justice Jasmin Ahmad threw out Morton’s similar defamation lawsuit against the Union of BC Indian Chiefs (UBCIC).
Ahmad ruled that the “public interest in preserving free debate and the UBCIC’s right to express its views” outweighed whatever harm Morton claimed.
Ahmad said UBCIC was entitled to collect costs from Morton.