CBC and Smith's Defamation Action

The CBC has published an Editor's Note about alleged direct emails from Smith's Office to Crown Prosecutors. Why?

Below is a link to a CBC Editor Note on the facts alleged about Danielle Smith's office contacting Prosecutors directly by email about Coutts Blockade prosecutions.

This is what happens in Defamation actions. This is an effort to clarify the facts about alleged direct emails to Prosecutors from Danielle Smith's office.

The CBC is walking back the allegations of such direct email contact with prosecutors.

What such clarifications are intended to do journalistically is to update or correct the record. They can also serve to mitigate the amount of damages awarded if a Court finds that Premier Smith was, in fact, defamed by the CBC.

There is what's called the Wrapped Up Defence Theory in Defamation cases.

First step is to deny saying anything defamatory. If it's proven that they said it, they allege they didn't mean it. And finally, if they said it and meant it, then it must be true. Truth is the ultimate defence to defamation.

I don't think he CBC is actually using any of these defences tactics in this recent clarification notation. They are correcting the record about the facts in light of the Ethics Commissioner findings and follow up with sources.

So the issue now is a legal question. Was the CBC allegations defamatory to Smith? Was the story so inaccurate that it caused her personal reputational damage in law based on the facts? We may never know if Smith doesn't pursue the law suit.

However,in the meantime, we have the Court of public opinion at play. What reputational damages did Smith actually suffer from the CBC allegations of wrongdoing?

She won a majority government in the recent election. And she did that in the face of the Ethics Commissioner report, released during the campaign, that found Smith had actually broken the Conflicts of Interest law around the same issues. And her illegal actions were also deemed to be an actual danger to democracy by the Ethics Commissioner.

That is surely more likely to damage her reputation in ways way beyond any undiscovered and alleged inappropriate direct emails to Prosecutors from someone in her Office.

Inspite of all that she still won a majority government with her party getting a majority of total votes cast.

What reputational loss is there then from the CBC storied? Hurt feelings don't count. Neither does political revenge. Both motivations to pursue the defamation litigation would be unwise to say the least.

There have been cases where defamation has been proven but the Court awarded damages to reputation have been a dollar, yup one dollar. Not saying that's the case here. But the ball is in Smith's court. We shall see.

HERE IS A LINK TO THE CBC THREAD INCLUDING THE MOST RECENT EDITOR'S NOTE.

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https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/calgary/alberta-ethics-premier-danielle-smith-breached-conflict-of-interest-act-1.6847662