SLAPP lawsuits said to target activists

When Aboriginal Cogeneration Corp. president Kim Sigurdson let it be known that environmentalist Ruth Madsen might “pay dearly” if his company incurs heavy costs for her appeal of his air emissions permit, some people took him seriously, some wrote it off to Sigurdson just blowing off some steam.

He’s clearly annoyed at having to put up with further delays to his project, wherever it might go. When you’re developing new technology and new business opportunities, time is money, and he has a lot invested in his gasifier project.

A recent story out of Ontario would seem to suggest that so-called SLAPP lawsuits — “strategic litigation against public participation” — are more than talk.

It tells of David Donnelly, who fought a $1-billion condo and marina complex planned for cottage country near Toronto. Donnelly is a lawyer who represented the Innisfil District Association in the fight to stop the development. After the appeal was turned down by the Ontario Municipal Board in 2007, developer Kimvar Enterprises Inc. slapped him and his client with a suit for $3.2 million, the amount it alleged it spent fighting the appeal.

Donnelly claims corporations are targeting “small town activists” because they’re vulnerable, and that it has put a chill on opposition to such projects. Kimvar claims it just wanted to get back what it cost to defend its interests. A spokesperson pointed out that the development was substantially altered to satisfy concerns before the challenge got underway, and that it had thousands of pages of science to back it up. Kimvar says the association simply ignored environmental studies that showed the development wasn’t a threat.

In the end, accusations of a SLAPP were thrown out, and the appellants didn’t have to pay costs but they they did tally up $1.25 million in defense costs.

Now here’s the thing. Some jurisdictions have anti-SLAPP legislation. B.C. does not. Maybe that’s why Madsen made a public appeal for support at last weekend’s peace march.