Vander Zalm denies defaming Hughes
Ex-premier says Fantasy Gardens sale investigation was ‘intimidating’
VANCOUVER — Former British Columbia premier Bill Vander Zalm took the witness stand Thursday to criticize the conflict-ofinterest investigation into him by former B.C. judge Ted Hughes and to deny that he had defamed Hughes.
In his notice of claim, Hughes says that passages from Vander Zalm’s autobiography mean that Hughes was self-interested, biased and politically partisan during the investigation into the sale of Vander Zalm’s Fantasy Gardens theme park in Richmond, that ended with his resignation as premier.
Hughes, a retired judge who lives in Victoria, told a B.C. Supreme Court jury hearing the defamation case that he was shocked and depressed when he read Vander Zalm’s book, Bill Vander Zalm For the People.
He said there were references to his conduct of the conflict of interest investigation into Vander Zalm that were untrue and unfair.
On Thursday, Vander Zalm’s lawyer, Tim Delaney, read out in court a number of the allegedly defamatory passages.
He asked Vander Zalm, 77, whether he meant to suggest that Hughes, 84, was biased and politically partisan.
“No,” replied Vander Zalm.
“I’m expressing my thoughts. These thoughts probably would have never entered my mind if it had been an open process where whatever one said could be challenged by another.
“We didn’t have that type of process, so obviously you begin to think the worst. This was a very serious matter for me. It meant continuing my life as it had been, or having to quit.”
Vander Zalm called Hughes’s investigation “intimidating” as the interviews were conducted in the cabinet offices in a “rather stark” room, where each witness was called in alone to be questioned.
“There were three people — two lawyers and Mr. Hughes. They would fire questions rapidly, one after the other. The whole thing was very strange. I’ve never seen anything like it.”
In February 1991, Vander Zalm asked Hughes to investigate the controversy surrounding the sale of Fantasy Gardens.
In April of that year, Hughes concluded that Vander Zalm had mixed his public affairs with his private affairs and had breached conflict of interest guidelines. Vander Zalm resigned immediately.
In his book, Vander Zalm says the biggest mistake of his life was agreeing to the NDP’S call for Hughes to chair the conflict inquiry.
He wrote that the second biggest mistake was to be “set up” in a situation where Hughes could be the prosecutor, judge and jury.
Asked by Delaney what he meant by the passages, Vander Zalm said he was concerned about the process, not Hughes.
He said he had hoped it would be a quick investiga- tion, similar to other, earlier conflict investigations of Socred cabinet ministers, and was disappointed when it dragged on.
Describing his background, Vander Zalm, who was premier from 1986 to 1991, displayed the folksy charm that made him a popular politician in his day.
He talked of humble beginnings, starting out selling flowers out of the back of a truck and eventually growing the business to the point where there were 14 retail outlets.
Soon after he became premier, protests began to spring up at the site of the Fantasy Gardens, he said.
The pressure on him to sell Fantasy Gardens increased, and it was finally sold to Taiwanese businessman Tan Yu, he said.
After questions were raised about the sale, he agreed to appoint Hughes, then the acting conflict commissioner, to investigate the matter, he said.
In his opening statement, Frank Potts, another lawyer for Vander Zalm, told the jury the case was a “flat contest” between his client’s right to free speech and Hughes’s right to protect his reputation.
He said it was the jury’s job to decide “where the line can be drawn” — a task that could be difficult.