Supreme Court will not hear Ezra Levant’s appeal of libel judgment

OTTAWA — The Supreme Court of Canada will not hear an appeal filed by outspoken political commentator Ezra Levant over a 2014 libel judgment against him.

Levant was found to have libelled Khurrum Awan in nine posts to his online blog.

An Ontario trial judge awarded Awan $50,000 in general damages and $30,000 in aggravated damages and ordered the libellous posts taken down.

The posts dealt with Awan’s appearance at a British Columbia Human Rights Tribunal hearing in 2008.

The Ontario Court of Appeal upheld the judgment against Levant last year.

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As usual, the Supreme Court gave no reasons for refusing to hear the appeal.

In the original ruling, Judge Wendy Matheson said the blog posts were “motivated by malice.”

“I find that the defendant’s dominant motive in these blog posts was ill will, and that his repeated failure to take even basic steps to check his facts showed a reckless disregard for the truth,” Matheson wrote in her decision.

Awan was completing his articling and looking for work as a lawyer when the statements were posted online. Awan sought $100,000 in damages.

The Canadian Press