THE STRANGE LEGAL SAGA OF BOB VERDUN

Last Saturday's Waterloo Region Record carrys a story titled "Verdun compares himself to journalist who was jailed". I'd gotten so used to the bad press Bob Verdun has received from the Record that at first blush I actually thought this one wasn't too bad. In hindsight it is. Way too much superfluous, derogatory comment is included about Mr. Verdun's being denied an appeal by the country's top court. Many readers don't know that the Record got their asses kicked by Verdun in Elmira and area when he started the Elmira Independent which soon blew the Signet (Record) off the map locally.

Secondly Canada's Libel laws are no prize. For a wealthy bigshot to sucessfully sue a former journalist for Libel isn't that much of a surprise. The onus is totally on the person being sued to prove his innocence of the civil charges not for the state or a private party who initiated the suit to prove their case. Hence Libel law is one of the few areas of law with a reverse onus included in the charges. Essentially it appears as if the Judge and court presume you're guilty until you prove otherwise and proving anything as subjective as Libel law is difficult especially with certain judges. It's also like proving a negative in that how do you prove you didn't do something?