Judge tosses defamation suit launched by ex-city staffer
Ruling against defendant Craig Burley could have caused ‘really, really significant chill,’ he says
A judge has dismissed a former Hamilton city worker’s defamation claim against a local community advocate over social media posts that focused on his neo-Nazi ties and objected to his employment with the municipality.
Had the Superior Court not ruled in his favour, it would have caused a “really, really significant chill” in critical public discourse about government and hate activity, says Craig Burley, the successful defendant.
In response to Marc Lemire’s defamation claim, Burley filed a motion arguing it amounted to a strategic lawsuit against public participation, known as a SLAPP suit.
The judge’s decision to uphold his right to air critical comments amid the threat of a defamation claim was important for public dialogue, agreed Wade Poziomka, who represented Burley.
“I think this case offers some protection to community advocates in that respect.”
In May 2019, Vice Magazine broke the explosive story of Marc Lemire’s longtime employment at city hall as an information technology analyst and past affiliations with prominent white supremacists.
At the time, Lemire told The Spectator he hadn’t been involved in “any politics for many years,” including those of the Heritage Front, a defunct neoNazi group. In his email, he described himself as a “well regarded IT professional” who “always conducted” himself “with the highest integrity.”
However, Lemire still maintained a pro-free-speech website that included a memorial archive dedicated to Doug Christie, a lawyer who defended Holocaust denier Ernst Zundel and Nazi-era war criminals.
He called freedomsite.org, whose domain had been renewed in April 2019, an “archive” that chronicles “the successful battle against civil prohibitions of speech in Canada.”
Lemire’s lawyer, Daniel Mauer, didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment Monday.
In August 2019, city manager Janette Smith announced Lemire and the municipality had “mutually agreed” to end his employment, noting his “offduty activities and associations did not reflect the culture, values and beliefs of the city.”
In the lawsuit he filed against Burley last year over Twitter posts in 2018 and 2019, Lemire sought monetary claims, but also aimed to have the material expunged from the internet. He claimed damages linked to the loss of his city employment, ability to find similarly paid work, a battered reputation and safety risks, Justice Elizabeth Sheard noted in her July 16 written decision, which follows a hearing in June.
Among his tweets, Burley argued Lemire, the “author and spreader of so much racist hate” should be “un-hired” from his post in “such a sensitive security position,” she noted.
In her 30-page ruling, Sheard rejects Lemire’s complaints of employment woes and safety concerns resulting from Burley’s tweets, calling them “merely a drop in the bucket” compared to what had been said about him “for decades.” She also notes Lemire’s affidavit statement that his Heritage Front days dated to when he was a “teenager” were “shaken” during cross-examination.
In one example, she points to his online eulogy to former leader Wolfgang Droege — “a great mentor and friend and leader of our movement” — in 2005, around when he started at city hall.
Sheard concludes the “public interest in protecting the expressions” of the defendant “outweighs the public interest” in allowing Lemire’s lawsuit.
Burley, a lawyer, vocal critic of municipal affairs and member of the LGBTQ community, raised Lemire’s affiliations with the city’s head of human resources in late 2018.
“The whole purpose of me bringing this to the city’s attention in the first place was to correct a wrong,” he said Monday. “That someone with Lemire’s past, it’s simply not tenable, it shouldn’t be allowed for someone like that to work in public service.”
Sheard ruled Burley is entitled to costs in the case.