A six-person jury in Winnipeg has awarded 400,000 Canadian dollars (U.S. $305,000) to a former candidate for Parliament who sued B’nai B’rith Canada for defamation.
This is regarded as one of the largest such awards in Canadian legal history. The group plans to appeal.
Luba Fedorkiw, who ran for the Progressive Conservative Party in Winnipeg during the 1984 general election, sued the League for Human Rights of B’nai B’rith Canada after a local newspaper reported the league was investigating allegations that she had made anti-Semitic comments.
The newspaper, the Winnipeg Sun, was not charged. Of the fine, $175,000 (Canadian) was for damage to reputation and $225,000 (Canadian) was for punitive damages.
The report appeared in the Sun on July 10, 1984 after Fedorkiw’s nomination and less than two months before the election date. She was defeated by David Orlikow of the New Democratic Party, a longtime incumbent.
The league’s investigation eventually revealed no evidence of anti-Semitism, and the organization made this public, but this apparently had no effect on the outcome of the court case.
“A sad precedent,” “ridiculous,” “unbelievable,” “the cure worse than the illness,” were some of the phrases and descriptions used by the Winnipeg Sun in an editorial the day following judgment.
There was no proof, it said, that the report affected Fedorkiw’s chance of election. B’nai B’rith Canada, said the editorial, was being “punished for merely doing its job.”
“The amount of damages,” said the Sun, was “staggering.”
Martin Boroditsky, a former member of B’nai B’rith’s executive board in Winnipeg, testified for the plaintiffs at the trial and is alleged to have leaked the investigation to the Sun. He said he hopes the award will force B’nai B’rith to reexamine its procedures.
“Maybe this will make them realize they are not a Jewish human rights commission…and have no absolute powers,” he said.
Lyle Smordin, chairman of the League for Human Rights in Winnipeg, said the league sees no need to change its procedures other than “keeping things in the strictest of confidence.”
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The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
