Arctic Oil ex Lawson begins defamation trial

2010-09-13 18:23 PT - Street Wire

Also Street Wire (C-CGS) CanWest Global Communications Corp

by Mike Caswell

The defamation trial of former senator Ed Lawson versus Vancouver Sun columnist David Baines began on Monday, Sept. 13, 2010, with Mr. Baines on the witness stand for most of the day. He took questions from Mr. Lawson's lawyer, North Vancouver libel specialist Roger McConchie, who asked him about topics ranging from his work history to inaccuracies in his story.

Mr. Lawson, who was Canada's longest-serving senator, sued Mr. Baines in the Supreme Court of British Columbia on June 19, 2008, over a story about a pink sheets company called Arctic Oil & Gas Corp. that had Mr. Lawson on its board. According to the suit, the March 12, 2008, story unfairly linked Mr. Lawson with criminally charged stock promoters Ed Carter and David Ward. Mr. Baines denies any wrongdoing, and contends that the facts of the story were true.

McConchie's opening

The day began with Mr. McConchie's opening statements. He rehashed much of the statement of claim and spoke about Mr. Lawson's high profile as a senator. He said that Mr. Baines, with his "false and malicious words," implied that Mr. Lawson is corrupt.

His opening also touched on The Sun's circulation and readership at the time of the story. In the first quarter of 2008, the paper's average daily circulation for the Wednesday edition was 171,393 copies. Mr. McConchie acknowledged that it was impossible to calculate how many people may have read Mr. Baines's column.

During his open and throughout the day, Mr. McConchie spent much time on specifics of law, including a general description of the defences for libel and how they are used. At one point during a technical legal discussion, Mr. Lawson (who was in the public seating area) was seen resting his eyes.

Baines on the stand

Mr. Baines took the stand toward the end of the morning session. One of the first (and lesser contentious) topics of the testimony was his background. Answering questions from Mr. McConchie, he told the court that he began working as a general reporter for The Winnipeg Tribune between 1972 and 1974, after which he moved to The Sun, where he worked until 1976. After a break from journalism, he returned to The Sun in 1988, and has remained there since.

The questions then became more complex, as Mr. McConchie started quizzing Mr. Baines about inaccuracies or missing information in the article. He said that Mr. Baines's story referred to the criminal trial of Mr. Carter and Mr. Ward, but the actual trial was against Mr. Carter and his son, Colin. "You attended some of the criminal trial in Ontario when Mr. Carter and his son were facing charges?" Mr. McConchie asked. "Yes," Mr. Baines replied. "That was not a trial of David Ward, was it?" Mr. McConchie later said. "No," Mr. Baines answered.

Mr. McConchie also pointed out that the story did not include much information about Mr. Carter's criminal trial, outside of a few bare details that referred to Mr. Lawson. One example was a $1-million bribe to a Texas man that was a large issue in the criminal case. "You had the option ... of telling your readers who received the bribe?" Mr. McConchie asked. "Certainly I had the option, but it wasn't a feasible option," Mr. Baines replied. "I'm just sort of parenthetically saying what the criminal trial was about," he explained.

Mr. McConchie later asked Mr. Baines why he had not stated the outcome of the trial. "I don't think that was relevant," Mr. Baines replied. "This was a column primarily about a pink sheets company," he said.

During the course of his testimony, Mr. Baines revealed that his sources for the paragraphs that dealt with Mr. Lawson were several stories contained in The Sun's database, called Infomart. Mr. McConchie asked for specifics, but Mr. Baines was unable to provide any. "You're not sure which newspaper reports you relied on?" he asked. Mr. Baines replied that he used more than one. Later in the day, Mr. McConchie led Mr. Baines through several specific stories from the Infomart database, but Mr. Baines could not say if he specifically relied on any single one.

Another of Mr. McConchie's afternoon topics concerned information that Mr. Baines did not include in his story. A portion of the column referred to a lawsuit the U.S. Department of Justice launched against the Teamsters union and Mr. Lawson in June, 1988. The suit, as summarized by Mr. Baines, claimed that Mr. Lawson and the union's executive, along with 26 purported mob figures, had hijacked the union from its members.

Mr. McConchie asked Mr. Baines several questions about why he had not reported that Mr. Lawson settled that suit before the others. The timing of the settlement had some significance, in Mr. McConchie's view. "You chose not to inform your readers that senator Lawson ... had been the key to reaching a settlement with the U.S. government," he said. "I think my general reference was true and accurate," Mr. Baines replied.

Another of Mr. McConchie's lines of questioning concerned any efforts Mr. Baines made to contact Mr. Lawson before writing the story. "Did you speak to senator Lawson before this article was published?" Mr. McConchie asked. "No," Mr. Baines replied. He said he may have left a phone message that Mr. Lawson did not return, but could not say for sure.

Mr. McConchie also touched on the continued availability of the article on The Sun's website, where it remains in spite of protests from Mr. Lawson. He asked Mr. Baines if he had received a letter which demanded that The Sun remove all copies from on-line databases immediately. Mr. Baines replied that he had received the request, and had referred it to his editor and to the newspaper's lawyer.

Mr. McConchie spent a portion of the afternoon asking Mr. Baines about a Microsoft Word document that may or may not exist. In the course of giving his testimony, Mr. Baines said his practice with some columns is to copy and paste information from several sources into a Word document before placing it into his story. In the case of this story, he was unable to say if he had followed this practice.

This led to several questions from Mr. McConchie about Mr. Baines's possible failure to disclose all necessary documents for the trial. "You knew at least by April 11, 2008, that you'd been sued," Mr. McConchie asked. "Yes," Mr. Baines replied. "You took no steps ... to search your computer or to search your desk for a Word document?" Mr. McConchie asked. After much back-and-forth, Mr. Baines finally admitted that he had not. He offered to search his computer as soon as possible.

The trial resumes Tuesday at 10 a.m.