Hissy Fit

He who must not be linked has taken the first step in suing Ottawa Watch for libel. The offending graf is this rather inocuous passage (and yes Mr. K, I am republishing the alledged libel - I’d be happy to provide your gunsel with my address for service):

And they remember Kinsella was executive assistant to Publis Works minister David “I’m entitled to my entitlements” Dingwall. Kinsella was the guy who foisted Chuck Guite on the bureaucracy. He was a key actor in the sponsorship kickback scandal. And that scandal is about half the reason Paul Martin is on the skids.
ottawa watch

For these pretty straightforward and true words, Mark Bourrie recieved a libel notice letter from Kinsella’s lawyer. He is standing his ground:

There will be no apology.
There will be no retraction.
ottawa watch

Now, other than reaffirming the fact that Kinsella is a jackass, this sort of absurd thinskinedness has no place in the blogosphere.

His lawyer announces,

The clear meaning of the Libelous Words is that Mr. Kinasella acted unethically and/or illegally while Execeutive Assistant to Mr. Dingwall and in his dealings with Mr. Guite.
Alternatively, the Libelous Words, by innuendo, imply that Mr. Kinsella acted unethically and/or illegally while Executive Assistant to Mr. Dingwall and in his dealings with Mr. Guite.
ottawa watch

Now, to Mr. K’s troubled conscience those words, either directly or by inuendo (and only a lawyer could use both terms in the course of a single letter), may imply unethical or illegal behavior; but that is not what they actually say.

“Foisting” is neither unethical or illegal and the record suggests Mr. K. foisted and foisted hard.

Kinsella, in his own testimony before the Standing Committe on Public Accounts stated,

I also stress that we did not do these things on our own. We did them with the assistance of many public servants, including our deputy minister, Ranald Quail; his ADMs, Rick Neville, Jim Stobbe, and Mike Church; and yes, Chuck Guité.

While it may be contrary to the conventional view, we found that Mr. Guité did a good job–as good a job as he had done under the previous Conservative administration. And if it matters, I can tell you that his name never appeared on any of the confidential reports I received from Public Works’ internal police force.
(hating to break my vow) kinsella

Which, of course, would have been a bit difficult for Kinsella to deny as, according to a memo filed at the Gomery Hearings,

A memo tabled Wednesday made it clear Guite was recommended for the job by the office of Dave Dingwall, then federal public works minister. Warren Kinsella, who served as Dingwall’s chief of staff, wrote on Nov. 23, 1995 — less than a month after the referendum — that “recent experience” had shown the need to centralize federal ad strategy.

The same centralized approach should apply to public opinion polling and other communications programs, he said.

Public Works was the logical department to review past practices and put new procedures in place, Kinsella wrote.

“In my view Mr. J. C. Guite … should be assigned to carry out this review on a full-time basis,” he told Ran Quail, the deputy minister at Public Works.

“It is requested that he (Guite) be assigned to a position that will allow him to carry out these tasks.”
ctv

Kinsella worked for Dingwall. Guite was the point guy for the adscam dollars and program. Kinsella was certainly an actor in the scandal, perhaps on the side of the angels and the auditors as he maintains, perhaps not. Bourrie makes no claim either way. Adscam was certainly a large factor in the defeat of Martin.

Bourrie is not wrong to refuse to apologize for true words. Kinsella’s gunsel can issue a writ and, at that point, I - and I suspect any number of other Canadian bloggers - will start contributing to his defence fund. What fun to have a free range look at Kinsella’s files - discovery is a wonderful thing.

Peter Butler, long time libel lawyer for the Vancouver Sun was famous for saying, “It costs $50.00 to file a writ.”

It costs more now but I would be amazed if Kinsella has the stones.

Written by jay on January 27th, 2006 with 4 comments.
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