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hatrack

(59,566 posts)
Mon Jun 1, 2020, 08:02 AM Jun 2020

Canadian Court Finds Hack & Shitstain Advisor Tim Ball Liable For Libel Of Climate Scientist

Climate science denier and Trump transition team advisor Dr. Tim Ball, who a Canadian court earlier derided as incompetent, ill-intended, and apparently indifferent to the truth, has been further rebuffed in the British Columbia Court of Appeal and must now stand libel for a 9-year-old attack against prominent Canadian climate scientist (and outgoing BC Green Party leader) Dr. Andrew Weaver.

Ball, a retired geography professor who for almost two decades has been giving lectures and media interviews in Canada and around the world denying the science of climate change, actually “won” this case when it was decided in the British Columbia Supreme Court in 2018. In January 2011, Ball had attacked Weaver on the populist website, Canada Free Press, in an article that BC Supreme Court Justice Ronald Skolrood later described as “poorly written,” and “rife with errors and inaccuracies, which suggests a lack of attention to detail on Dr. Ball’s part, if not an indifference to the truth.”

EDIT

This, according to Justice Susan Griffin, who wrote a unanimous decision for the BC Court of Appeal this year, was an error. Justice Skolrood, she wrote, made his decision “taking into account the poor quality of the writing” and “based on evidence known to the Court, but not to the ordinary and reasonable reader.” She didn’t say as much, but it’s worth noting that, in a Fox News universe, “the ordinary and reasonable reader,” might be forgiven for being confused about what’s real and what’s false on the news and opinion pages covering topics like climate change.

Reacting to the new judgment, Dan Johnson, the environmental science professor whom Ball tried to sue in 2006, said it was obvious that some people have been taking Ball seriously, in part because he had so consistently leaned on his overstated academic credentials. Ball’s “phony argument from authority convinced some to ignore the science,” Johnson said. “And we need respect for science more than ever, so it is good to see those who undermine it exposed and disregarded.” The case now goes back to the lower court to cover some unresolved issues and, presumably, for an assessment of damages.

EDIT/END

https://www.desmogblog.com/2020/05/27/canadian-court-slams-trump-climate-advisor-successful-libel-case

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