The Bob Ward thread

[Low Light Mike]

I found a link to a court document that is a lengthy, but very interesting, look at BC Ferries in the 1990's, as well as having some other history bites.

You might remember Mr. Ward as a vocal critic to the FastCat project. This court document is re his suit against then Premier Glen Clark for defamation.

I found the read of this today to be very interesting and surprising to me. I say surprising because it gives me a glimpse back to the 1990's re BC Ferries, which was an era in which I didn't pay too close attention to these issues.

Here's the link to the PDF, for your recreational reading purposes:
www.adidem.org/case/ClarkvWard2001BCCA0724.htm

For those who read part or all of it, you might find some interesting nuggets of our recent ferry history.

I also wonder what Mr. Ward would have been like on this here forum, if this forum had been around in the 1990's and if Mr. Ward would have been a participant. That's my main motivation in setting up this here thread. Bob Ward was vocal 10 years ago, but his style and message is similar to things that we're reading on this forum today, from other posters. That's why I think it's interesting to look back at what Bob Ward was saying, and how he said it. It adds a deja-vu effect to some of the stuff currently being posted here.....

[Neil]

So what ever happened to Bob Ward, anyway?

Finally got around to reading the whole decision. Poor Bob. Judge says he turned out to be right about the fast ferries, but that doesn't keep Glen Clark from winning his appeal.

Was Ward's lawyer the same Doug Christie of Victoria who has made a name for himself defending various right wing extremists, like Ernst Zundel?

The judge's decision contained a lot of interesting observations on the 'privilege' that elected officials have, or don't have, in responding to criticisms. Christie's question to Clark that he could have sued Ward if he really thought Ward was spreading 'misinformation' was ridiculous, since, as Clark pointed out, elected officials simply can't respond with a lawsuit to every critic who they believe to be misinformed.

Seemed odd that the judge detoured in the midst of his summary into a detailed account of the start up of BC Ferries. Interesting reading, but I'm not sure what bearing it had on the appeal.

It was noteworthy that the whole matter hung on one, not overly long sentence, made in the midst of a media scrum, and I found it intriguing that virtually every word of the sentence was parsed by the judge, to discern meaning, context, and question of 'privilege', with appropriate historical precedents examined.

[Mirrlees]

hornbyguy said:

So what ever happened to Bob Ward, anyway?

Finally got around to reading the whole decision. Poor Bob. Judge says he turned out to be right about the fast ferries, but that doesn't keep Glen Clark from winning his appeal.

Was Ward's lawyer the same Doug Christie of Victoria who has made a name for himself defending various right wing extremists, like Ernst Zundel?

The judge's decision contained a lot of interesting observations on the 'privilege' that elected officials have, or don't have, in responding to criticisms. Christie's question to Clark that he could have sued Ward if he really thought Ward was spreading 'misinformation' was ridiculous, since, as Clark pointed out, elected officials simply can't respond with a lawsuit to every critic who they believe to be misinformed.

Seemed odd that the judge detoured in the midst of his summary into a detailed account of the start up of BC Ferries. Interesting reading, but I'm not sure what bearing it had on the appeal.

It was noteworthy that the whole matter hung on one, not overly long sentence, made in the midst of a media scrum, and I found it intriguing that virtually every word of the sentence was parsed by the judge, to discern meaning, context, and question of 'privilege', with appropriate historical precedents examined.

Bob Ward died of cancer in 2002.