An Alberta judge has dismissed an application for an injunction against a podcaster who has covered the province’s health care controversy.
Monday’s ruling is a reversal of a court order issued in mid-February, when podcaster Nate Pike of The Breakdown, a political commentary show, was told to remove all content related to the case from the internet and stop publishing any new material.
Mr. Pike, on his podcast and on social media, had chronicled questions about Alberta Health Services’ business deals, the provincial government’s role and the links to Sam Mraiche, the owner of MHCare Medical Corp., a company that has worked with the province.
The Alberta government has been facing a growing controversy since The Globe and Mail reported in early February on allegations of government pressure in contracting and procurement at AHS to the benefit of private companies. The Auditor-General has launched an investigation, and last week a cabinet minister resigned over his government’s handling of the issue.
The allegations were later made public in a wrongful dismissal lawsuit filed by the former chief executive officer of AHS. The claims have not been tested in court.
In December, Mr. Mraiche and MHCare filed a $6-million lawsuit against Mr. Pike, alleging defamation and harassment. On Feb. 13, Mr. Mraiche said in a court filing that he feared for his safety and sought an injunction ahead of a trial against Mr. Pike and The Breakdown to remove material related to the case and refrain from new statements.
In an urgent hearing the next day, Justice Doreen Sulyma of the Court of King’s Bench in Edmonton issued the two-week injunction.
The legal test for a defamation injunction ahead of a trial is strict, to protect freedom of expression, but recent academic research in the Dalhousie Law Journal showed defamation injunctions issued by the courts regularly go “far beyond what is justifiable.”
Last Friday at the Court of King’s Bench in Edmonton, the two sides returned for a lengthier assessment of the application for an injunction against Mr. Pike. Justice Bonnie Bokenfohr delivered her judgment Monday morning.
Mr. Pike’s lawyers at Wilson Laycraft said the injunction application failed because it did not meet “the legal test for such extraordinary interim relief.” They added that the application wasn’t able to show Justice Bokenfohr that Mr. Pike’s possible legal defences, such as fair comment or responsible communication in the public interest, “would inevitably fail.”
With the two-week injunction expired and the latest court ruling in hand, Mr. Pike restored most of The Breakdown’s material on the internet. The defamation case is continuing, and Mr. Pike’s lawyers said it could be years before the case goes to trial.
After the lawsuit was filed in December, Mr. Pike sought to raise money for a legal defence fund on the crowdfunding website GoFundMe. He set a goal of $80,000. As of Monday, he had raised more than $200,000 from 2,700 donations.
“I don’t think anyone was thinking I’d have the resources to fight back,” Mr. Pike said Monday. “The support I’ve received has been overwhelming. If not for that support, I’d be all kinds of screwed.”
Mr. Mraiche’s lawyers did not respond to several requests for comment Monday. In a previous statement they said “any allegations or insinuations of wrongdoing on the part of MHCare Medical Corporation and/or Sam Mraiche are unwarranted and unjustified.”