Ryerson radio station wins two-year slander suit

Carolyn Turgeon
The Eyeopener (Ryerson University)
TORONTO (CUP) – Ryerson University’s campus radio station was awarded $1,200 in legal costs March 3 when a slander case against them was dismissed.
John Lennon, a main shareholder in a local entertainment publishing company John Headley Lennon Music Limited, brought the case forward against CKLN.
“In our view, it was frivolous,” said Andrew Lehrer, vice-chair and secretary of CKLN’s board. “I think the court agrees with us because they sided with us. It took two years, and we’ve had four trial dates this year alone.”
According to a contract, CKLN was responsible for giving away tickets to shows and air advertisements for the company in late 2008.
Lennon claimed that his company received calls from listeners, mentioning that on Sept. 12, 2008, the company’s advertisement was followed by a negative comment from the announcer.
His goal was to collect $10,000 in damages for the loss of customers caused by on-air slander.
“We believe they are responsible for the duty of their business,” Lennon told the judge Feb. 16, the second last court date.
Lehrer started his position in Aug. 2009. He said there was no record of a request from Lennon for the radio episodes in which the alleged slander occurred until the month before he arrived.
In his defense, Lehrer cited the Canadian Radio and Television Communication Act, which stated that stations are only required to keep “logger tapes” of broadcasts for the previous four weeks.
“My understanding is that we were only required to keep them for 30 days and the first letter arrived just over that,” Lehrer had told the court.
Lennon eventually provided his own tapes of the comments, though the judge presiding over the case found them to be not defamatory.
In the final court session, it was declared that Lennon had no evidence that he had suffered any damages.
“It’s been more a nuisance than anything else, having to go to court and taking time off of work,” said Lehrer.
Correction
The March 16 CUP news article “Ryerson radio station wins two-year slander suit” incorrectly quoted CKLN vice-chair Andrew Lehrer saying, “we’ve had four court cases this year alone.” In fact, the station had had four trial dates. In addition, the article was incorrect in noting the plaintiff John Lennon was unable to produce tapes of the alleged slander; Lennon eventually did provide tapes, but the comments in question were found not defamatory.