Former Ontario MPP Michael Chan in October, 2007.Tibor Kolley/The Globe and Mail
An Ontario judge has thrown out a lawsuit launched against The Globe and Mail by a former Ontario provincial Liberal cabinet minister, ruling there is an important public interest in protecting an investigative journalist’s use of confidential sources.
Michael Chan was claiming $10-million in punitive and personal damages after Globe journalist Robert Fife and Sam Cooper, a former investigative journalist with Global News who now publishes independently, reported extensively on China’s alleged foreign interference efforts in the 2021 federal election.
The reporting in 2023 put pressure on the Trudeau government to appoint a special rapporteur and undertake a public inquiry into the issue.
In his lawsuit, Mr. Chan alleged that Mr. Fife and Mr. Cooper had separately engaged in a conspiracy with unnamed national-security officials by reporting on allegations of Mr. Chan’s links to China’s Toronto consulate and his alleged association with proxies of Beijing.
Mr. Chan claimed the reporters had induced confidential sources with the Canadian Security Intelligence Service to illegally share sensitive information that was not in the public interest.
Mr. Chan is currently deputy mayor of Markham and has been a major organizer and fundraiser for the Liberal Party, provincially and federally.
2023: CSIS warned Trudeau about Toronto-area politician’s alleged ties to Chinese diplomats
Justice Loretta Merritt of the Ontario Superior Court of Justice on Wednesday found Mr. Chan failed to provide evidence of a conspiracy and concluded that his lawsuit didn’t seriously challenge The Globe or others’ reporting.
She also found the suit was an effort to obtain the identities of the reporters’ confidential sources.
“Mr. Chan’s lawsuit is what the Supreme Court has recognized as a SLAPP lawsuit: a tactical action that seeks to suppress expression on matters of public interest,” Justice Merritt wrote.
SLAPP stands for strategic lawsuit against public participation.
Mr. Chan complained in his suit that The Globe was provided “unfounded and inaccurate” information by the confidential sources when they said segments of CSIS were of the view that he was improperly associating with people who might be intelligence actors on behalf of the Chinese government on matters that were election-related.
In February, 2023, The Globe reported that then prime minister Justin Trudeau and senior aides had been warned that government MPs should be cautious in their dealings with Mr. Chan because of alleged ties to China’s consulate in Toronto. The Globe cited confidential sources who risked prosecution under the Security of Information Act.
Later that year, The Globe reported that then public safety minister Bill Blair took four months to sign off on a CSIS request to monitor Mr. Chan in the lead-up to the 2021 federal election.
The spy agency had wanted to intercept Mr. Chan’s electronic communications and gain entry into his home and offices, but the delay left CSIS little time to figure out the best ways to plant bugs in Mr. Chan’s cars, home, office, computers and mobile devices before the election.
That reporting also relied on a national-security source.
Mr. Chan has been of interest to CSIS before. The Globe reported in 2015 that Mr. Chan had been the subject of CSIS security briefings in Ontario over fears he was too close to the Chinese consulate. He was a cabinet minister for former Ontario Liberal premiers Dalton McGuinty and Kathleen Wynne from 2007 to 2018.
Mr. Fife, The Globe’s Ottawa bureau chief, has reported extensively on allegations of foreign interference alongside colleague Steven Chase.
Mr. Chan’s lawyers did not respond to a request for comment about the ruling.
Justice Merritt found Mr. Chan “does not seriously challenge” the information published by The Globe, noting that the claim “is not a genuine attempt to seek redress against them for damage to Mr. Chan’s reputation.”
“The reality of the present case is that Mr. Chan is suing the Defendants so that he can obtain the identities of the confidential sources and pursue them for breaching the [Security of Information Act],” she wrote.
If Mr. Chan’s lawsuit had been allowed to continue, Justice Merritt warned of a potential “chilling effect” on whistle-blowers, confidential sources and the media.
“The use of confidential sources supports freedom of expression and the maintenance of a robust democracy,” she wrote.
“The media might be less inclined to report on important matters of public interest out of fear of lawsuits, forced disclosure of the identities of journalists’ confidential sources, or the use of journalists as a means to pursue claims against their confidential sources.”
Globe Editor-in-Chief David Walmsley said in a statement: “We welcome the court’s underlining of the essential nature of investigative journalism.”
Mr. Cooper wrote that the finding is “significant for all Canadians.”
“My reporting speaks for itself,” Mr. Cooper wrote.