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The Chilliwack college trustee gained a civil go well with over remarks the controversial metropolis councillor made about her throughout an internet interview
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Former Chilliwack college trustee Barry Neufeld has been ordered to pay present board member Carin Bondar $45,000 for referring to her as a “striptease artist.”
Bondar defeated Richard Procee in a contentious 2021 byelection, at a time when Neufeld was waging a marketing campaign towards the introduction of SOGI — sexual orientation and gender id — inclusivity tips in B.C. colleges.
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Throughout a September 2022 on-line interview with Action4Canada, Neufeld mentioned: “Richard Procee ran towards that striptease artist within the byelection 4 years in the past … ”
On the time of the comment, Neufeld was in search of re-election in that fall’s municipal election marketing campaign. Neufeld misplaced as each Bondar and Procee gained seats, with Bondar receiving essentially the most votes amongst 15 candidates for seven board seats.
In a B.C. Supreme Court docket judgment posted on-line late final week, Choose Michael Stephens agreed Bondar was defamed and that the phrases had potential for actual hurt to Bondar’s popularity. He rejected Neufeld’s arguments the phrases needs to be thought-about acceptable as a consequence of certified privilege or honest remark.
Neufeld was ordered to pay Bondar $35,000 usually damages and $10,000 in punitive damages.
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The ruling didn’t make any reference or give an opinion about SOGI, although it’s central to the dispute between the 2. Bondar, who has levels in biology and forestry, has made a profession of advocating for sexual well being and inclusive science schooling.
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Neufeld — a retired corrections, probation and youth prison justice employee and longtime college trustee — has referred to SOGI as a part of a “warfare on youngsters,” and labored whereas on the board to have it taken off the curriculum in Chilliwack.
The “striptease” comment refers to a video Bondar made in 2014 that parodied Miley Cyrus’s Wrecking Ball, during which she discusses biology whereas at instances sporting underwear and a sleeveless T-shirt and briefly showing bare from behind whereas swinging on a ball.
The racy video grew to become a byelection speaking level as opponents sought to discredit Bondar as a critical politician, together with Neufeld sharing it on a non-public Fb group and a billboard being put up with a screenshot from it with the phrases: “Is that this your youngster’s concept of a college trustee?”
In a February 2021 Chilliwack Progress article titled “Faculty board byelection candidate defends bare parody video,” Bondar says she stands by her work and that it was geared toward a mature viewers. She mentioned through the marketing campaign that month that “activists who opposed me used the video to assault my integrity.”
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Bondar testified that she sees “nothing fallacious with striptease artistry,” however that the video and screenshots have been shared by critics with “precise malice” and due to “a broadly held societal view … that girls shouldn’t behave in a sexually liberated method in public, and that girls who accomplish that do not need integrity and should not appropriate for public workplace.”
In assessing the extent of damages, the decide famous Neufeld has refused to apologize for the comment, and in reality repeated them in a 2023 e-newsletter that sought monetary help for his authorized battles.
Stephens agreed that Bondar “has skilled nervousness, upset and reputational hurt related to the impugned phrases,” whereas acknowledging they got here after a byelection the place others had criticized Bondar’s look within the video.
He mentioned successful the byelection regardless of the assertion doesn’t take away from the very fact Bondar skilled “stress and nervousness” because of Neufeld’s phrases.
Earlier, Neufeld tried to sue former B.C. Lecturers’ Federation president Glen Hansman, claiming Hansman’s feedback about Neufeld’s anti-SOGI place have been defamatory. That lawsuit was tossed out by the Supreme Court docket of Canada final yr on the grounds that it was geared toward suppressing public debate on the topic.
jruttle@postmedia.com
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