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Former University of Ottawa professor and blogger Denis Rancourt has been ordered to pay $444,895 in legal costs to a colleague he libelled, but won’t face a contempt of court hearing for continuing to make online postings about the defamation trial.
The awarding of legal costs last week bring the total Rancourt owes Joanne St. Lewis and lawyers to more than $1 million.
In June, a jury found that Rancourt had acted maliciously when he called the law professor a “house Negro” in two postings on his blog in 2011 and awarded St. Lewis $350,000 in general and aggravated damages. Rancourt already owed St. Lewis and the University of Ottawa $247,000 in costs prior to the start of the trial for various failed legal motions and appeals over the three-and-one-half-year history of the case.
Whether the former physics professor will ever pay any of it is another question — Rancourt says he has no money and can’t pay.
Justice Michel Charbonneau’s Aug. 21 decision wasn’t all bad for Rancourt, however.
The judge decided to cancel contempt of court proceedings against Rancourt that had been set for Sept. 25. Charbonneau had initiated the hearing after Rancourt continued to post online about the civil trial while it was underway. Rancourt had boycotted the trial and declared the proceedings a “kangaroo court.”
Charbonneau said he believes he needed to make a formal order prohibiting Rancourt from making the postings to hold a contempt hearing, and since he never did, such a hearing shouldn’t proceed.
However, the judge rejected all of Rancourt’s arguments for why he shouldn’t be ordered to pay, including that the awarding of costs would violate the Charter principle of freedom of expression.
“In deciding to make this case overly complex and time-consuming to defend, the defendant knew the ultimate claim for costs would be very substantial. He cannot complain now that it is very substantial,” wrote Charbonneau.
During the trial, St. Lewis testified about her evaluation of a 2008 report by the university’s Student Appeal Centre that found there was systemic racism in the processes the university used to deal with alleged academic fraud by students.
It was that negative evaluation, which found serious methodological problems with the report, that prompted Rancourt to refer to St. Lewis as he did.
aseymour@ottawacitizen.com
twitter.com/andrew_seymour
查看原文...
The awarding of legal costs last week bring the total Rancourt owes Joanne St. Lewis and lawyers to more than $1 million.
In June, a jury found that Rancourt had acted maliciously when he called the law professor a “house Negro” in two postings on his blog in 2011 and awarded St. Lewis $350,000 in general and aggravated damages. Rancourt already owed St. Lewis and the University of Ottawa $247,000 in costs prior to the start of the trial for various failed legal motions and appeals over the three-and-one-half-year history of the case.
Whether the former physics professor will ever pay any of it is another question — Rancourt says he has no money and can’t pay.
Justice Michel Charbonneau’s Aug. 21 decision wasn’t all bad for Rancourt, however.
The judge decided to cancel contempt of court proceedings against Rancourt that had been set for Sept. 25. Charbonneau had initiated the hearing after Rancourt continued to post online about the civil trial while it was underway. Rancourt had boycotted the trial and declared the proceedings a “kangaroo court.”
Charbonneau said he believes he needed to make a formal order prohibiting Rancourt from making the postings to hold a contempt hearing, and since he never did, such a hearing shouldn’t proceed.
However, the judge rejected all of Rancourt’s arguments for why he shouldn’t be ordered to pay, including that the awarding of costs would violate the Charter principle of freedom of expression.
“In deciding to make this case overly complex and time-consuming to defend, the defendant knew the ultimate claim for costs would be very substantial. He cannot complain now that it is very substantial,” wrote Charbonneau.
During the trial, St. Lewis testified about her evaluation of a 2008 report by the university’s Student Appeal Centre that found there was systemic racism in the processes the university used to deal with alleged academic fraud by students.
It was that negative evaluation, which found serious methodological problems with the report, that prompted Rancourt to refer to St. Lewis as he did.
aseymour@ottawacitizen.com
twitter.com/andrew_seymour
查看原文...
