(Ottawa) An Ontario Superior Court judge has found no documented evidence to support allegations made against former Liberal MP Han Dong in a series of Global News articles last year.
The judge made the comments while rejecting a request from Corus Entertainment to dismiss Mr. Dong’s lawsuit against the news agency, saying it was in the public interest to hear the case.
“The issue of Mr. Dong’s communications with the Chinese is worthy of the freedom of expression of a transparent justice system,” Justice Paul Perell said in his ruling Wednesday.
The Global News article from early last year cited unidentified sources and suggested that Han Dong had privately advised a senior Chinese diplomat not to release Michael Spavor and Michael Kovrig, Canadians arbitrarily detained in China.
As a result of the story, Mr. Dong’s reputation and political life were destroyed, Mr. Perell said in his judgment.
Han Dong left the Liberal caucus in March 2023 to become an independent, saying he sought to clear his name after these and other allegations related to foreign interference emerged.
He denied the allegations against him and filed a lawsuit against Global News, its parent company Corus and several journalists just weeks after the article appeared.
“While we are disappointed by the decision, we are encouraged by the recognition of foreign government interference as a matter of public interest in Judge Perell’s decision,” Corus said in a statement Thursday.
“As the matter is still before the courts, we will not make further comment at this time. »
Wednesday’s ruling expressed concerns about the lack of documentation to support the investigation behind the report.
“The defendants have no tangible or documented corroboration of information from confidential sources about the conversation between Mr. Dong and the Chinese consul general,” the judgment said.
Mr. Perell discovered that the reporter who wrote the article had not seen the transcript of the conversation between Han Dong and the diplomat and had not kept all of the notes used in the reporting process.
The ruling says the notes the journalist kept, based on conversations with sources, contain no reference to Han Dong advising a Chinese diplomat to “delay” or “postpone” the release of the two Michaels.
The sources obtained their information through “an unknown degree of heresy,” the judge added.
He ordered Corus to reimburse Han Dong for his legal fees, arguing that Corus’s request to dismiss the lawsuit resembled an abuse of legal process.
In a statement released Thursday, Han Dong said Global News should apologize and retract its reporting.
“Until they do, I will fight to clear my name in court,” he wrote.
The article was part of a series of reports on foreign interference that turned into a major political controversy. In response, the government appointed former Governor General David Johnston as special rapporteur to investigate allegations of foreign interference.
The judge noted that Mr. Johnston had concluded that Global’s reporting on the issue was “false.”
A subsequent, ongoing federal investigation into foreign interference in the Canadian election also collected evidence of the call between Han Dong and the Chinese diplomat, but the commission has not released any findings or conclusions about what happened. happened.