Via Slashdot, this story bounced over from Canoe.ca(CP) about a mother of 3 in Waterloo, Ontario who set up a website in April to document her complaints about “questionable building practices and labour-code violations” of a local developer. She even wrote to the Ontario Ministry of the Environment to report her findings. I only found this Google cache copy of an over-quota Geocities account, so I have no idea of the nature or extent of her claims (see Robert’s links in comments).
The developer, Activa Holdings, has now launched a punitive libel suit against Louisette Lanteigne for $2 million. Here’s what’s interesting: Activa’s lawyer, Greg Murdoch (looks like a nice enough guy), crows that Activa is “confident the right public perception will come about.”
Now, maybe it’s the naive little boy in me that thinks this is the dumbest way for a company to restore its besmirched reputation. You can’t polish a gold turd with sandpaper, to coin a phrase. If the woman is lying, they’re still suing the mother of 3 into bankruptcy. If she’s telling the truth, wouldn’t it be better to keep it, like, on the hush-hush?
No dry cleaning on the planet is going to make this suit look good in the public eye. Unless Activa stops acting like a rich bully, this is going to end up in front of a judge and Lanteigne’s claims will be made even more public, true or not.
As a footnote, Canadian libel law is somewhat retarded. You can basically be sued for anything that damages someone’s reputation. It’s up to you to prove that what you’re saying is true. Even then, the court might find against you if they suspect your intentions were malicious.
Next up: Funfur to be named in punitive libel suit for calling lawyer “nice enough guy”
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Yeah, it’s a real shame that the site is on crappy geocities with their useless bandwidth limits (like Yahoo! can’t afford bandwidth). I republished all of Lanteigne’s text, and wrote about the follies of corporate bullying.
Comment by robertDouglass — Nov. 14, 2005 @ 4:38