Day 34

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.

The day was filled with the testimony of CBC witnesses.

Direct Examination of Rachel Ward by Mr. Woodley (Counsel for the CBC)

Ms. Ward, BA, MA, is a Producer of the CBC program Fifth Estate.  Her evidence:

·      In March 2019, she was an Associated Producer for CBC working on the Eye Opener program and as a web writer.

·      She became aware of the Press Progress article about Caylan on the night of March 18.

·      She had gone home when Caylan posted her resignation and she returned to work at 2:00 Pm on the 19th.

·      Helen Henderson instructed her to work on the Caylan story and reach out to Caylan.

·      Helen Henderson had made the decision that Jivraj would be a confidential source.

·      She wrote to Caylan copying the screenshot of the “Pride Parade” message and putting questions to Caylan concerning that message.

·      Caylan responded to Ms. Ward’s email saying she would reply in 15 minutes.

·      Ms. Ward became aware that Ms. Whitey was talking to Caylan on the phone.

The telephone call:

·      Ms. Ward and Caylan then had a telephone conversation that was recorded.

·      Caylan first asked that the conversation be off the record.

·      She later agreed that the conversation could be on the record.

·      [It was never clarified whether the conversation was on or off the record.]

·      Caylan agreed to do a pre-taped interview for the Eye Opener.

·      Ms. Ward confirmed that the taped interview would be edited.

·      Caylan told Ms. Ward about the profoundly misleading articles Press Progress had written about her.

·      And that Press Progress was utterly disinterested in correcting the record.

·      Caylan told Ms. Ward that she had deleted the Facebook messages; that she had no record of the conversations and it was very difficult to respond.

·      Caylan told Ms. Ward that Press Progress had published defamatory articles about her and had failed to correct their false statements when advised of the facts.

·      Caylan told Ms. Ward that Jivraj was a “diagnosable psychopath who has been stalking and intimidating and engaged in an incredibly involved elaborate campaign of defamation against me for a year.”

·      Caylan told Ms. Ward about the nefarious conduct of Jivraj and of the various attempts he had made to sabotage her political career including:

o   Jivraj’s false allegation that Caylan had accused a candidate of sexual assault.

o   His purchase of Caylan’s domain name.

o   That he had a habit of making up quotations, attributing them to Caylan, and then buying ads on Google to promote them.

·      She also told Ms. Ward about Jivraj’s fraudulent campaign as a supposed political candidate, his lewd comment about her tits, the cease-and-desist letter, and the police report on Jivraj.

·      Caylan gave Ms. Ward the name of Sadiq Valliani, who could confirm her statements about Jivraj fraud as a supposed candidate.

Following the phone conversation:

·      At 7:17 PM Ms. Ward wrote Caylan with an email entitled “URGENT CBC NEWS”:

o   Quoting the “Pride Parade” message excerpt.

o   Telling Caylan that a CBC reporter had seen quotations on Jivraj’s phone.

o   asking that Caylan provide documents confirming what Caylan had told about Jivraj.

o   Telling Caylan that CBC would seek more information concerning Jivraj.

·      At 9:00 PM Caylan emailed Ms. Withey advising that she would not be participating in the Eye Opener interview because “I’m not sure I’ll get a fair hearing”.

·      Ms. Ward emailed Caylan saying the door was still open for an interview.

·      Ms. Ward wrote the first CBC article about Caylan; it was published at 11:02 PM. [click HERE to view] (updated)

·     ·      The headline was “Star UCP candidate who made white supremacist comments also questioned value of Pride parades”.

·      The sub-headline was “Jason Kenney condemned Caylan Ford for lamenting replacement of white peoples in their homelands”

·      [Jason Kenney did not condemn Caylan; he condemned the comments; he made a point of emphasizing that fact when testifying.]

·      The article states that Caylan “… lamented there was a double standard for white supremacist terrorists …”

·      [Caylan did not “lament”; she described a double standard.]

·      The article described Jivraj as a “longtime Muslim conservative with deep ties to the party”.

·      Quoted NDP candidate Ganley saying “… [Caylan] is a star candidate that he [Jason Kenney] convinced to move here from Ontario specifically to run in this election”.

·      [The quoted statement is utterly false except for “star candidate”.  However, it serves the purpose of diminishing Caylan while lending credibility to her NDP opponent.  Its inclusion in the article suggests that Ms. Ward either was indifferent to the truth or found it acceptable to publish falsehoods contained in a third person quotation.]

CBC justification:

·      Ms. Ward characterized the quotations as being white supremacist.

·      She thought Caylan was complaining that Islamic terrorists were not treated fairly.

·      She thought use of the words “demographic replacement” demonstrated beliefs held by white supremacists.

·      She was not aware of any information that disputed the Press Progress characterization of Jivraj, so kept the same description.

·      Helen Henderson had granted Jivraj confidentiality.

·      The demographic replacement comment was not reproduced in full because “we picked out the part that was most in the public interest and the clearest”.

·      They included “it will not be a peaceful transition” because that seemed like a white supremacist theory about a race war.

·      They did not include Caylan’s concern about a loss of diversity because it was “repetitious and confusing”.

·      [It would only be confusing if you wanted to conclude that Caylan was a white supremacist].

·      They wanted to publish comments that raised questions about whether Caylan held racist or homophobic views so the public could see and assess for themselves.

Subsequently:

·      On March 20 Ms. Ward wrote an article when Caylan’s replacement candidate was appointed.

·      The article was entitled “UCP finds replacement for UCP candidate who resigned over white supremacist comments”.

·      It repeated the CBC claim that Caylan “lamented there was a double standard for white supremacist terrorists.”

·      Ms. Ward did not listen to or watch the Danielle Smith interview of Caylan.

·      In April, Caylan emailed Ms. Ward sending her a copy of Caylan’s essay Apologia.

·      Ms. Ward read the essay and concluded that “it seemed like a commentary on political discourse and was nothing new.”

·      Ms. Ward “did not understand [Apologia] to be a written statement … it didn’t seem like a statement responding to my questions about pride parades.”

·      Ms. Ward did not respond to Caylan; she did not understand her receipt of Apologia as an invitation to interview Caylan.

Cross-examination of Ms. Ward by Mr. Harrison (Caylan’s Counsel)

·      Ms. Ward asked Mr. Labby to send her the pride parade messages but did not ask for any surrounding context.

·      The proposed pre-taped interview of Caylan would have been edited by CBC and portions may be deleted.

·      The edited interview would be used on different CBC news segments.

·      Ms. Ward recognizes that Press Progress is a left-leaning advocacy organization, and not a news outlet.

·      Caylan suggested CBC call Mr. Valliani to confirm Jivraj’s fraudulent activity in connection with the Calgary-Centre nomination.

·      Neither CBC nor Ms. Ward followed up with Mr. Valliani.

·      Ms. Ward told Caylan that CBC would seek information about Jivraj from the police and from the Law Society.

·      CBC did not do so.

·      The CBC article stated that CBC had “seen and verified the messages”.

·      Ms. Ward who wrote the article did not know what Mr. Labby had seen – he only saw one message on Jivraj’s phone.

·      Ms. Ward didn’t know who came up with the description of Jivraj as a “long time Muslim conservative with deep ties to the party”.

·      They did not mention that Caylan had described Jivraj as “someone who has waged an obsessive campaign of intimidation, harassment, and defamation” against Caylan.

·      The article did not inform readers that Caylan had declined an interview because she did not have her copies of the messages and because she did not think she would be treated fairly.

·      It was in the public interest to publish the terrorist message.

·      CBC deleted content from the terrorist message.

·      It was not in the public interest to publish all of the terrorist message?

·      Caylan’s statement that the quotes were a gross distortion of her views was omitted from the CBC article.

·      Ms. Ward did not think Caylan’s Apologia had any content significant to Ms. Ward.

·      The CBC only quoted persons who were condemnatory of Caylan,

·      They did not try to present any positive views about Caylan.

·      Ms. Ward did not consult any legal or academic definitions of “white supremacist” before applying the term to Caylan.

·      She did not consider that describing Caylan as a white supremacist would adversely affect her employability or her life.

·      She did not consider that describing Caylan as a white supremacist would subject her to contempt and ostracism.

·      CBC had formerly said that they would reconsider their coverage of Caylan if she submitted a written statement.

·      She did not consider Apologia a written statement.

Comment

In her resignation statement and in her telephone conversations with Ms. Ward and Ms. Withey, Caylan provided CBC with sufficient information about Jivraj and Press Progress to alert them to the fact that neither of those sources were credible.  Yet the CBC published its March 19th articles relying entirely on those two disreputable sources.  They were so enthusiastic about publishing an article damaging to a prominent conservative candidate that they disregarded the red flags about their sources.

What is a white supremacist?

Ms. Ward characterized Caylan as a white supremacist. She has a Masters degree in journalism and should be capable of precision in her language.  What is a white supremacist?

Dr. Kaufman defined white supremacist as: “White supremacy” - believes in the racial supremacy of the white race which entitles white people to dominate or rule over other groups. Sometimes this overlaps with white nationalism, sometimes it is separate (e.g. antebellum south was white supremacist, not white nationalist.) It’s a hierarchical system where one group is superior.

What is a white supremacist?

Ms. Ward characterized Caylan as a white supremacist. She has a Masters degree in journalism and should be capable of precision in her language.  What is a white supremacist?

On Day 24 of the trial, Dr. Kaufman defined white supremacist as: “White supremacy” - believes in the racial supremacy of the white race which entitles white people to dominate or rule over other groups. Sometimes this overlaps with white nationalism, sometimes it is separate (e.g. antebellum south was white supremacist, not white nationalist.) It’s a hierarchical system where one group is superior. 

Wikipedia defines white supremacist as “the belief that white people are superior to those of other races. The belief favors the maintenance and defense of any power and privilege held by white people.”

None of the quotes attributed to Caylan suggests that she believes in the racial supremacy of white people.  But if sensationalism is the objective rather than truth, white supremacist is the term of choice.  Press Progress had not called Caylan a white supremacist, so Ms. Ward outdid even Press Progress; she excelled in sensationalism.