Photo Credit: St. Catharine’s Standard
As we reported a few weeks ago (here), the Courts dismissed the NPCA’s defamation case against Ed Smith, an outspoken advocate for transparency and good governance. At the time, there had been no ruling in Mr. Smith’s counterclaim against the NPCA and affiliated parties.
That decision has now come in and the Courts have ordered that the NPCA and other plaintiffs who sought to silence Mr. Smith will have to pay monetary damages to him for their actions.
As Mr. Smith states in the St. Catharine’s standard, the decision and view of the Court:
“should resonate in Niagara for a long time, the behaviour displayed by the NPCA can not be tolerated in Canada.”
Much like US President Nixon learned many decades ago, the NPCA has now learned that trying to silence and suppress “enemies” through the use of the courts or other political machinery will only cost them in the end.
While the monetary damages are minor, it should be interesting to see how elected members of the NPCA will now fare at the voter’s booth in October.
You can read the full article in the St. Catharine’s Standard here:
http://www.stcatharinesstandard.ca/2018/01/06/npca-ordered-to-pay-smith-131000