SL, I’m no so sure that the suit is unwarranted. Unlike certain bloggers who have already dismissed Kinsella’s claim as “bogus,” I’m not sure about its (lack of) merit, in no small part due to the sloppy phrasing in the allegedly libelous words. I’ll leave it to a judge to sort it out. I’d be more compelled to jump on the Bourrie bandwagon if I thought that Kinsella’s claim was pointless, but those allegedly libelous words can be read in a way that makes Kinsella look like a real mover in Adscam. That’s why I’m not begrudging Kinsella’s actions at this time — though I’m not saying that Kinsella is necessarily in the right.

As I see it, if you’re running a blog, you’re a publisher and should exercise the same judgment as someone running a newspaper or magazine. The same laws apply even if the blogosphere tradition is to “setttle arguments” with long, pointless flamewars.

Now, I’ve been on the receiving end of threats like this a few times myself. While I think that Canadian defamation law is tilted in favour of plaintiffs, the fact is that it’s something one has to deal with until the laws are changed (There’s a cause I’ll klink some bucks towards.). When you’re dealing with loaded subjects — especially when the players are known to call in the lawyers — you’ve got to make sure you’ve covered every detail instead of firing away. There are people who are more likely to sue than work these things informally. Warren Kinsella’s one, Ezra Levant’s another. There are plenty more out there.

Keep in mind that a lot of the blog discussion about this suit is from those who have (for one reason or another) an axe to grind with Kinsella. I’d love to see an opinion from a lawyer who specializes in defamation and who does not have an agenda towards either of these characters.

Oh me too Balbulica I hang my head because there is no apology when the big guy bullies the little guy. I can only imagine that Kinsella is doing this because he has no where else to feed. The bottom has rejected him too.

Well…lets see if he can pull of a Madonna or a Lopez and remake himself eh? There is a place in this world for assholes too - they just need to know their place.

Ian,

I don’t disagree with anything you have posted either.

Bourrie did in fact refuse to retract, or at least admit that he was guilty of bad grammar, not libel. But for Kinella’s part he attacked Bourrie with an immediate and definite threat to sue in response. The two of them do not like each other and haven’t for some time as far as I can surmise.

I would have contributed to Bourrie’s defence fund if he had not, which he freely admits, gone out of his way to respond by editing Kinsella’s Wikipedia profile after the threat to sue by Kinsella. Bourrie claims that he only changed the references to himself. The problem is that that one act constitutes a guilty mind or mens rea in legal terms, or at least malice on his part if he edited the profile in any way derogatory to Kinsella. That is the kind of thing that raises ambiguity to the whole affair. The kind that, sadly, a judge probably must rule on.

Kinsella does have a case. Not a good one, mind you. This is not worth 600K plus court costs in a heartbeat.

He is a real bottom feeder for persuing it against a grad studend with a young family given the the quite obvious history between them and the benign grammatical error at the heart of it all.

An undifferentiated pronoun that follows two spelling errors in the same paragraph — does Kinsella expect a judge to buy that this was a deliberate slam on his character?

On the other hand, it would have been really simple for Bourrie to print an “oops, sorry.”

Looks to me like two bulls that have been pawing the ground at each other for awhile, now.

If Kinsella wins, the entire blogging community will have been put on notice…bad spelling and grammar can ruin your life. And I’ve got blogging friends who are so “dyslexic” when it comes to spelling and grammar that it’s almost an art form. Matter of fact, one of them did turn it into a CBA award…

I wonder if this lawsuit will actually fly, or if it will get settled.

Wow.

And…how did it go?

Hmmmm? My sound effects disappeared. I wrote “Bump, bump, bump” (my sound effects)…I can’t tell a joke in person either. Darn….

:OP Pththththththth

And you have outted yourself a guy.

Also, it’s:

a) the ability to tell jokes (about loud, rude bodily functions), OR

But just incase you are interested. I thought I would do a quick search and see what I could find about gender blogging. I found a well written explaination that I copied the link too.

http://tsuredzuregusa.blogspot.com/2005/10/gender-blogging-invisible-netroots.html

Cool link, Wideye. BTW, I hope you know the whole thread was your fault.

Hey, wideeye. I followed my site stats here…thanks to your link on my article on blogging and gender.

A) If your search for the article was what introduced you to my blog originally, I’m extra glad I wrote it. It is a pleasure to have your company over there.

B) Please note those are my own *thoughs* and observations, which hardly constitute an iron-clad explanation. Just want to state that for a record.

C) And now, I owe you for introducing me to StageLeft. This is a great blog and is going on my blogroll. I live in the US right now and actually work in US politics, but I’m Canadian, and I mainly keep tabs on things at home by reading good Canadian blogs, so this is a great find.