http://www.canada.com/victoriatimescolonist/news/capital_van_isl/story.html?id=746ef277-7149-4a4e-9bd3-73c5841e57f5
Spokesman for custody group launches suit for defamation
Placement on anti-woman list devastating, plaintiff claims

By Richard Watts

May 01, 2007, Victoria Times Colonist (CAN)---A trial is underway for a Victoria spokesman of B.C. Fathers who is suing the federal government and others for defamation over a paper he says put him on a list of anti-woman "masculinist" groups.

Ken Wiebe is a father and spokesman for B.C. Fathers, a support group for parents, but mostly men, regarding child custody. He contends he was defamed when his name appeared in a paper titled 'School Success by Gender: A Catalyst for the Masculinist Discourse, Policy Research.'

According to Wiebe's statement of claim the paper cites "a discourse of hate, often violent and unchecked, directed at women and feminists" found on the Internet. And it calls the Internet a medium that 'enables extremists, racists, supremacists, heterosexists, misogynists and other individuals from the right and the extreme right.'

'It is no accident that this medium (the Internet) is being used by those on the extreme right, pedophiles and pornographers,' the paper also states.

Wiebe's name appeared in the paper's appendix in a list of people, men's groups, journalists and news organizations, including the Times Colonist, as members of "masculinist" groups or people or agents that have given them publicity. The list was also posted on a website but taken down after about three months.

The paper was printed in March 2003, originally in French, and funded by the federal Minister Responsible for the Status of Women. It was later translated into English.

Besides the federal government, Wiebe's lawsuit also names Pierrette Bouchard, Isabelle Boily and Marie-Claude Proulx of the University of Laval. The statement of claim contends they are all "university lecturers, employees or activists, militant feminists or researchers."

Wiebe is being represented by Doug Christie, a Victoria lawyer with extensive experience in defamation and freedom-of-speech cases, largely connected with his representation of Holocaust deniers like Ernst Zundel.

In an interview outside the courtroom, Wiebe said the experience was devastating for him, his health and his family life. It also made it very tough to work in government. 'I felt like I was on a McCarthyist blacklist,' said Wiebe.

In a statement, the three named women from the University of Laval contend they neither wrote nor translated the paper, School Success by Gender.

But the statement of defence also maintains it's true Wiebe has developed a website that included hate messages toward women and feminists and promoted violence against them, all points contained in the English text.

The trial is scheduled to continue this week.