Toronto banker tied to Trudeau fundraiser slaps Globe and Mail with $250-million libel suit
Newspaper allegedly reported bank's approval granted after May 2016 meeting between Trudeau and more than 30 Chinese-Canadian business executives
A Toronto businessman that reportedly attended a private fundraiser with Prime Minister Trudeau in May 2016 before winning approval to launch a bank catering to Chinese-Canadians has slapped the Globe and Mail and myriad government defendants including CSIS director David Vigneault with an extraordinary $250-million libel suit seeking to expunge a series of articles that suggest Ottawa is concerned Beijing is clandestinely pursuing a range of geopolitical and economic strategies “that are a direct threat to our national security and sovereignty.”
The lawsuit, filed May 9 in Toronto Superior Court, alleges Canada’s leading newspaper has defamed the plaintiff and his bank.
It namesThe Globe’s CEO, its chief editor David Walmsley and deputy editor Sinclair Stewart, and Ottawa-based reporters Robert Fife and Steven Chase, among about 20 other editors and reporters.
The sprawling claim also casts a net for “John Doe” story sources, seeking to punish and deter “unlawful disclosure of the secret and confidential information.”
Due to the nature of the lawsuit, which seeks injunctions preventing speech about the disputed reports,The Bureau will not identify the Toronto-based businessman and financial entities involved. Records online indicate the plaintiff’s company advertises social ties to the Toronto Chinese Consulate and its senior diplomats.
On Monday The Bureau asked The Globe to comment on the extraordinary libel claim, but the newspaper hasn’t yet responded or filed a defense in the proceedings. CSIS also has yet to reply.
The $250-million suit targets a series of stories in which The Globe reported that Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland had instructed the plaintiff and two other founding investors “to divest their shares” and ordered their Toronto-based bank “to comply with extraordinary national-security conditions intended to firewall its operations against the trio who have faced federal scrutiny over alleged links to the Chinese government.”
It says The Globe reported the three bank founders included a Toronto financial professional, a Toronto grocery-store magnate, and a wealthy Vancouver real estate developer.
AndThe Globe reported that in May 2016 the plaintiff “and 32 other business executives attended a private fundraiser for the Liberal Party of Canada where Prime Minister Justin Trudeau was the guest of honour.”
(Editor’s note: The Globe has also reported a Trudeau Liberal MP who was Ontario’s former minister of finance was board director of the bank in question, before joining Trudeau’s government in a Toronto-area by-election.)
The claim saysThe Globe reported at the time of the May 2016 fundraising meeting with Trudeau, the plaintiff “was waiting for final approval from federal bank regulators” — to launch a bank that could take in deposits domestically — and the plaintiff’s approval “was granted a month later.”