Lawyers square off in court over activist
Judge to decide if lawsuits filed against Ed Smith will go forward
Ed Smith’s lawyer ended proceedings with a plea to Judge James Ramsay to protect freedom of speech on matters of public interest.
Niagara Peninsula Conservation Authority and its former CAO Carmen D’Angelo are suing Smith over information he compiled in a report Smith authored titled A Call for Accountability at the Niagara Peninsula Conservation Authority.
“Mr. Smith’s motivation is that he is a concerned resident of Niagara,” Smith’s lawyer Erin Pleet said Tuesday as she argued the judge should dismiss the lawsuits against her client.
NPCA and D’Angelo are each suing Smith for $ 100,000.
Paul DeMelo, the lawyer representing NPCA and D’Angelo, told Ramsay that his clients’ reputations were damaged because Smith was “reckless or wilfully blind” while making certain statements in the report.
He said Smith’s report — Smith took ownership of it this year — accused D’Angelo of conflict of interest, not paying taxes and contract swapping. It also presented NPCA as an organization riddled with conflicts of interest and questionable practices.
Pleet said Smith’s report was anything but reckless and malicious. She told the court Smith went so far as to have a police officer from Peel Regional Police look it over before it went public.
“Public figures should expect scrutiny and criticism,” Pleet added. “As public figures, they have many different avenues they can use to protect their reputations. Litigation should be one of the last.”
Pleet’s defence is partly based on legislation the province passed in 2015. The law protects citizens when they are speaking or writing about issues that are in the public interest.
The Protection of Public Participation Act is intended to allow citizens to participate more freely in public discussions without fear of retribution by giving them a better way to defend themselves against strategic lawsuits, commonly known as SLAPPs ( Strategic Litigation Against Public Participation).
The threat of a strategic lawsuit, which can be lengthy and expensive, is often used as a means to intimidate or punish opponents and discourage others from speaking out.
The legislation contains a fasttrack review process that allows the court to identify and dismiss strategic lawsuits quickly.
Ramsay spent two days listening to submissions on lawsuits involving Smith, NPCA, D’Angelo and former NPCA board chairman Bruce Timms, a regional councillor for St. Catharines.
Smith, for his part, is countersuing NPCA and Timms for $ 60,000.
Bill Montgomery, a marketing specialist from Niagara- ontheLake, is suing Smith and two Niagara Region councillors from St. Catharines, Brian Heit, and Kelly Edgar, for defamation, claiming $ 3.5 million in damages.
At the end of the hearing, which took place in a Welland courtroom over two days, Ramsay said he would reserve his judgment and let the parties know when he has reached his decisions on which lawsuit or suits can proceed.
Montgomery represented himself, a difficult task in Superior Court for someone not trained in law. At one point he drew a compliment from Ramsay, who told Montgomery, he was “very effective as an advocate” for his position.
Montgomery said Smith’s report singles out his companies as an example of “illegal management” at the conservation authority in awarding a contract to an outside source.
“I’m collateral damage here,” Montgomery said before he added that his business reputation was “cooked” after Smith’s report was distributed among regional councillors as they tried to decide whether to hire D’Angelo for the job of Niagara Region CAO. D’Angelo was named CAO in the fall of 2016.