{"id":79230,"date":"2016-07-29T19:11:32","date_gmt":"2016-07-29T23:11:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/?p=79230"},"modified":"2016-07-29T19:11:32","modified_gmt":"2016-07-29T23:11:32","slug":"superior-court-found-balita-publisher-liable-defamation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2016\/07\/29\/superior-court-found-balita-publisher-liable-defamation\/","title":{"rendered":"Superior Court found Balita publisher liable for defamation"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Senator
Senator Enverga at the Agincourt Senior Service Centre<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Toronto Superior Court of Justice Judge Sidney Lederman recently ruled in favour of Sen. Tobias C. Enverga Jr., in his defamation lawsuit against Balita Media Inc. and publisher Tess Cusipag, in a damning verdict over false and defamatory remarks published about the Senator which alleged fraud related to fundraising efforts on behalf of the Kalayaan Cultural Community Centre (KCCC) in 2000.<\/p>\n

The judge awarded Senator Enverga general and aggravated damages, in addition to punitive damages and a permanent injunction against the publisher and her company to publish\/broadcast, or assist or encourage others to publish\/broadcast, any statements about the issues related to the Senator\u2019s role in KCCC fundraising, the charitable status of the Philippine Canadian Charitable Foundation (PCCF) and Senator Enverga being a biological and pathological liar.<\/p>\n

In the judgement, Justice Lederman wrote in part: \u201cIn the end, the defendants have no reliable evidence to prove the truth of the $6,000 fraud allegation\u00a0or the PCCF donation\/tax credit allegation.\u00a0 In fact, Cusipag admitted on discovery that it is not true that Senator Enverga committed a fraud in relation to fund raising activities and that the PCCF allegations are false.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201c\u2026 an award of punitive damages is necessary in this case. \u00a0The defendants, and in particular Cusipag, has done virtually everything she could to destroy and discredit Senator Enverga in an unrelenting manner \u2026 They engaged in absolutely no investigation whatsoever as to the truth of what they were publishing. They were recklessly indifferent to the truth of the Article \u2026 At no time has there been any retraction or apology given.\u00a0 Cusipag vows to continue to make defamatory statements against the plaintiff [Senator Enverga] and has shown no interest in stopping her efforts or refraining from misconduct. In 2010, after Senator Enverga was elected as a Catholic school board trustee, he arrived late to a press event held by Cusipag [Senator Enverga went to a wake for a good friend]. She published a warning to Senator Enverga.\u00a0 \u2018First off is to respect the press who can wield its power to make or break you.\u2019 In the article and on her Facebook page, she is fulfilling the threat that she made against the plaintiff in 2010 that she would destroy him,\u201d the judge continued.<\/p>\n

The judgement is clear on the motivation of the Balita publisher, stating that: \u201cCusipag was motivated by malice.\u00a0 She obviously holds a deep seated resentment towards Senator Enverga.\u00a0 She used his comments to the Philippine press as a springboard to vent her unfounded allegations in the published article and her Facebook to intentionally besmirch Senator Enverga\u2019s reputation in the Filipino-Canadian community.\u201d\u00a0 After receiving the decision, Senator Enverga\u2019s counsel, Howard W. Winkler, told the Senator: \u201cThe decision is a complete vindication of your reputation.\u00a0 The decision is a complete indictment of Ms. Cusipag.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI am relieved by the court\u2019s decision on this matter,\u201d said Senator Enverga in a statement.\u00a0 \u201cThis is a victory for the community,\u201d Senator Enverga ended. \u2013 from the Office of Senator Enverga <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Toronto Superior Court of Justice Judge Sidney Lederman recently ruled in favour of Sen. Tobias C. Enverga Jr., in his …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":44,"featured_media":25173,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1481,1145],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-79230","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-news-comm","category-headline","mauthors-office-of-senator-tobias-enverga"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/79230","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/44"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=79230"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/79230\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/25173"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=79230"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=79230"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=79230"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}