Radio-Canada considers that the investigative report by its journalist Alain Gravel for which it was ordered to pay $ 60,000 to businessman Lee Lalli for defamation was rigorous and does not rule out the possibility of bringing his case until the Supreme Court.
“We are really looking at all our options”, said in an interview Luce Julien, director general of information for French Services of Radio-Canada, evoking the possibility of making an application for leave to appeal at the highest level. country court. “The decision is not yet taken, our lawyers are analyzing that. “
She specifies that the report broadcast on the program Investigation has “taken months” of research and is “a very good story.” “We remain convinced that[il] was rigorous, serious and that it complied with journalistic standards and practices, ”she insisted, reiterating all her confidence in her teams of journalists and lawyers.
However, Judge Jocelyn Rancourt of the Court of Appeal of Quebec estimated in his decision rendered last month that Alain Gravel was above all seeking to “tell a more catchy, more sensational and more interesting story than it really is. “.
He thus sided with Lee Lalli, who believes that the report “Land mined by the mafia”, broadcast in March 2013 by the program Investigation, “Falsely links him to the Mafia, contains inaccuracies about his involvement in real estate transactions [et] contravenes professional journalistic standards ”.
Mr. Lalli claimed $ 300,000 in compensatory and punitive damages for damage “to his honor and reputation”. His defamation suit was dismissed in 2018 by the Superior Court. Judge Lukasz Granosik considered that the proof of this damage was “non-existent” and had qualified the journalistic work as “rigorous”.
However, the judgment of the Court of Appeal overturns this decision. “I am of the opinion that the judge [de première instance] got it wrong. […] He did not stop to analyze the general impression emerging from the report to assess the fault. The manner used to collect the information and present it is faulty, ”writes Judge Rancourt.
“The most important fault,” he continues, “lies in the distorted image of reality resulting from the general impression emerging from the report of the program. Investigation and its presentations on other distribution platforms. “
The report in question focuses on the sale of land acquired by Mr. Lalli in 2003 in the Côte-des-Neiges – Notre-Dame-de-Grâce borough in Montreal. According to Judge Rancourt, seven elements contributed to present a faulty image of this case.
Among them, the fact that the journalist Alain Gravel suggests that the land cost Mr. Lalli 50,000 dollars, but was sold almost 100 times more expensive four years later, at a price of 4.5 million. However, it is not mentioned that the land was divided into two deeds of sale in 2003: the first at 1.8 million and the second at 50,000. “Yet Lalli had clearly explained to Gravel that the transaction had taken place. ‘object of two deeds of sale for tax reasons’, we can read in the judgment.
Moreover, if the report indicates that the second part of the land was sold for 1.5 million in 2006, the name of the real estate developer who bought it, Michel Servant, is never mentioned. It is the latter, however, which ceded the ground in 2007 for the sum of 4.5 million. This implies that Mr. Lalli sold for this exorbitant sum a piece of land which he no longer even owned.
Another important element: “the report gives the clear impression that Lalli is part of the mafia” since it is presented “on an equal footing” with the mafia Tony Magi, underlines Judge Rancourt. However, the information held by Alain Gravel only showed “that Lalli knows Rizzuto, Magi and Del Peschio, that he is a good friend of the latter and that he has already rendered services which are not illegal to Rizzuto. Gravel has no information that would reveal Lalli’s involvement in Mafia-related criminal activity. “