Judge orders CBC to pay $295K in defamation case court costs

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This article was published 21/03/2022 (1359 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

A Manitoba Court of Queen’s Bench judge has awarded court costs to a Winnipeg man defamed by CBC reports prompted by a disgruntled client.

In December, the CBC was ordered to pay investment adviser Ken Muzik nearly $1.7 million in damages, after a judge ruled the public broadcaster and a former reporter were defamatory in the television and online coverage.

In a written decision issued March 4, Queen’s Bench Justice Herbert Rempel awarded Muzik a further $295,017 in legal costs.

The defendants’ counsel and plaintiff’s counsel could not agree on pre-judgement costs and interest, and instead of arguing in front of Rempel, opted the judge rule in the second written argument.

Muzik had testified the reports, which first aired in June 2012, had a devastating impact on his personal life and ability to earn an income for several years.

“I am satisfied that Mr. Muzik was truthful in his evidence as to how his personal and professional life spiraled out of control and that all of this was caused by the defamatory expression in the news stories,” Queen’s Bench Justice Herbert Rempel said in the first written decision released in December.

The defamatory stories focused on the allegations of William Worthington, a former client who claimed he commuted his $675,000 Canadian Pacific Railway pension on Muzik’s advice, converting it in 2006 to an investment plan Muzik devised, only to see it lose half its value.

Muzik testified at trial he informed Worthington about the risks of an economic downturn that would reduce returns and the value of his portfolio. Rempel said he found Muzik more credible on the stand than Worthington.

The first ruling included special damages of nearly $610,000 for income Muzik lost after the stories aired in 2012.

erik.pindera@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: @erik_pindera