Day 10

Note:  I am a poor note-taker and these summaries will contain errors and omissions which will reflect my limitations.  My intention is to report on the facts as accurately as possible although a subconscious bias may creep in.  I can only provide glimpses into what I see as relevant and interesting events. My goal is to capture the essence of the day’s events rather than be comprehensive.

Read the reference documents: The Legal Case and Events Leading to Trial to obtain an understanding of the case and its history.  Names and terms are abbreviated and defined in  Glossary.

Continued Cross‑Examination of Caylan by Matthew Woodley, Counsel for the CBC

·      Canadian Press, the Globe & Mail, Post Media, and the Calgary Sun all published defamatory articles about Caylan

·      She did not sue those publications

·      Caylan obtained a court restraining order against Jivraj in 2023

·      The CBC published an article about the restraining order and about a fine given to Jivraj for contempt of court

·      While an employee of Foreign Affairs, Caylan progressed through different employment categories but never became categorized as a permanent employee of Foreign Affairs

·      Caylan’s current annual income from her school is $135,000

Cross‑Examination of Caylan by Amy Cooper, Counsel for the Toronto Star

Concerning the Toronto Star:

·      A defamation notice is a notice given to newspapers advising that they may be sued for a defamatory publication; it is a necessary preliminary step before suing

·      Post Media and the Calgary Sun were among the many that published articles derogatory of Caylan

·      Caylan gave defamation notices to 8 parties, but did not sue all the parties given notice

·      she did not sue Post Media or the Calgary Sun

·      Caylan confirmed that a reporter from Star Edmonton (a free handout publication of Toronto Star) had emailed her asking to speak to Caylan that afternoon;

·      Caylan referred him to her resignation letter; they did not talk;

·      Caylan told the reporter that if he had questions to email them to her; she did not receive any emails from him;

·      In an article published on March 19 the Toronto Star included a reference to Caylan’s resignation letter and quoted some of the exculpatory statements made in that letter;

·      Kevin Leaman, a Toronto Star reporter, reached out to talk to Caylan on March 25;

·      Caylan advised him that she could not speak on that day but would be happy to talk 2 days later;

·      Caylan received no further communication from Leaman;

·      Caylan was questioned about the fact that she never sent information to the Toronto Star;

·      Caylan made the point that she did not have investigative obligations; that she was not the journalist, they were;

·      In April 2019, Caylan published Apologia (described in Glossary)

·      She did not send a copy of that essay to Toronto Star, although she did send it to other news media;

·      Toronto Star published quotes from Mark Hlady [identified in Glossary] claiming that Caylan was hand picked b Kenney to run as a candidate and that he Hlady could have beaten her in the nomination contest if he had not been unfairly disqualified;

·      Emma McIntosh, a Toronto Star reporter, wrote many defamatory columns about Caylan;

Concerning Caylan’s relationship with Jivraj:

·      Caylan suspected as early as March,  2017 that Jivraj was a sketchy character;

·      By 2018 she knew he was cunning, deceitful and treacherous, had a drinking problem and was intent on destroying her ;

·      in January 2018, Caylan told the UCP communications director about the FB Messages she had exchanged with Jivraj, and that Jivraj was posting derogatory messages about her;

·      The UCP party retained a lawyer to write a cease-and-desist letter to Jivraj;

Cross‑Examination of Caylan by Ben Franken, Counsel for Defendant Avnish Nanda:

The cross-examination largely involved questions and answers about exhibits I could not see.  Because I did not know anything about the subject of the Q and A, I can not summarize it well.  The following is the best I could do:

·      Nanda wrote op-eds and tweets derogatory of Caylan;  

·      Nanda and a person named Mohamed made defamatory statements about Caylan;

·      Nanda also communicated with Emma McIntosh of the Toronto Star making defamatory statements about Caylan;

About Caylan publicity after resigning:

·      Caylan did a podcast with Joel Chrichton in March;

·      She was a podcast guest on True North in Sep 2019;

·      She was scheduled for a talk at the University of Lethbridge but the event never happened;

·      She and Barbara Kay (a National Post columnist) were speakers at a public meeting in Calgary;

·      In July 2020, Caylan launched a podcast named, “Worst Thing Ever”; did 3 podcasts;

·      Caylan was twice interviewed by Cory Morgan;

·      Caylan did a podcast interview with a Harvard professor; the podcast was entitled "Lapidation and Cancel Culture”

·      Caylan published several times in The Hub, an online magazine;

·      She also published a piece called They Can’t Cancel your Soul for The American Mind

·      She was  a panelist in a seminar at a Britania Fellowship conference in the UK

·      Caylan was on a podcast called Truth Exists

·      She was a guest and spoke at a Civitas conference on 2 occasions

·      She published more articles on genocide in communist China

·      Caylan finished her documentary entitled When the Mob Came in 2023

Re-Direct Examination of Caylan by her Counsel, Richard Harrison:

Concerning Caylan’s productive abilities:

·      Caylan now has a more limited capacity for work than she formerly had; her productive ability is impaired

·      Because of her reduced endurance, Caylan now needs days off, suffers social anxiety and finds it mentally taxing to deal with people

About pharmaceutical medications:

·      Caylan and Dr. Lucido discussed different medications for the treatment of Caylan’s depression

·      They discussed the side effects of the medications and the mechanisms by which they work

·      Dr. Lucido was sceptical about the use of pharmaceutical medications unless all alternatives had failed

·      Caylan chose not to take the medications because science does not understand the mechanisms by which they work

·      Caylan was concerned about long-term side effects   

Comment:

·      The fact that Caylan did not sue every organization that defamed her does not detract from the defamations by the Defendants who were sued.

·      If the sued Defendants thought other media organizations should bear some of the defamation damages, they could bring those other organizations into the lawsuit, seeking contribution to the damages

·      The legal procedure by which those other organizations could be brought into the lawsuit is called a Third Party Notice

·      Some Defendants appear to be contending that because Caylan was not completely crushed their defamation was harmless.