Eleven months ago Blair Wilson’s political career was turned upside down by a series of newspaper articles, now the MP is dragging the articles’ authors into court.

In a statement of claim filed in the Vancouver Law Courts on Sept. 24, Wilson alleges that the Vancouver Province owners Canwest Publishing Inc. along with Liberal Party officials acted maliciously to “attempt to cause political and financial damage to the defendant Blair Wilson.”

“I guess it’s one of the things publishers of a news magazine have to decide when faced with a story,” Wilson alleged in an interview with the Outlook. “Run with it knowing it’s not true and sell lots of papers or not run it and not sell lots of papers.”

Wilson’s counterclaim against his father-in-law Bill Lougheed’s lawsuit was filed Sept. 24. In it Wilson claims he was defamed by Canwest, Province reporter Elaine O’Connor, Liberal Party officials Judi Tyabji Wilson and Mark Marissen as well as blogger Steve Janke. Wilson asks the court to award general damages, punitive damages and costs for the “anguish and suffering” he’s endured as a result of the defendants’ actions.

Lawyer Jay Straith said the newspaper articles were part of an attempt by Wilson’s father-in-law Bill Lougheed to hamper the MP’s re-election bid. Lougheed recruited a well-placed Liberal to aid his efforts, Straith added.

“It was a black bag operation,” said Straith, who is Wilson’s official agent during the current election campaign. “The documents speak for themselves.”

Straith plans to reveal copies of cheques, e-mail correspondence and other documents in court, to outline an organized scheme to discredit Wilson. He said he doesn’t expect a trial for another two years.

“There’s going to be a lot of BlackBerries pulled on this one,” Straith said. “One of the reasons we had to do it now was (defendants) can lose BlackBerries, but they can’t lose what’s on the servers (within a year).”

In the statement of defence, Wilson asserts that Lougheed’s company Norbill Investments transferred $185,000 on Aug. 20, 2007 to Tugboat Enterprises, a software recovery company co-founded by Judi Tyabji Wilson. Tyabji, a former MLA, is now one of the Liberal Party of Canada’s vice-presidents in the West Vancouver-Sunshine Coast-Sea to Sky Country riding.

According to the statement, after receiving the cheque Tyabji met with Mark Marissen, the Liberals’ national campaign co-chair and organizer behind Stéphane Dion’s leadership bid.

Marissen and Tyabji began to feed information, including confidential Liberal Party documents, to Province reporter Elaine O’Connor, according to Wilson’s counterclaim. Included was an Oct. 24 document that purported to be an anonymous complaint letter to Elections Canada, but was actually written by Tyabji, according to the court filing. Marissen distributed the document to top Liberal officials.

“We don’t know exactly what his motivations would be and why he would think this would be a good idea,” Straith said of Marissen’s actions. “I just think it’s fair to say Mr. Marissen will be listed in next year’s edition of Esquire’s Dubious Achievement Awards.”

Contained in the document are allegations that Wilson “deliberately misled” Elections Canada in his financial statements. The complaint was later posted on the blog Angry in the Great White North, operated by Cambridge, Ont. resident Steve Janke.

Starting on Oct. 28, the Province published a series of articles outlining the Elections Act violations. The articles also claimed Wilson and his wife Kelly owed $2.1 million in debt to Kelly’s stepfather Bill Lougheed.

“The media has no right to print these things,” Straith said, adding that Lougheed did not claim any debt was owed until after the article was published. “Publishing anonymous letters in newspapers is something that’s got to stop.”

When the stories were published, Wilson denied the allegations.

“I am confident that the allegations against me will be found to be baseless,” Wilson said in a news release. “However, I have decided to resign to ensure that there are no negative implications for the Liberal party at this time.”

But on Oct. 30, Liberal leader Dion told Wilson he had learned that the West Van MP would be charged with election violations within five days. By December, Elections Canada had yet to decide if an inquiry should be launched, according to letters sent to Straith.

Regardless, the Liberals kicked Wilson out of caucus in December. Two months later Lougheed filed a suit demanding payment of the $2.1 million identified in the Province articles.

By March, Lougheed trimmed the lawsuit down to a $1.29 million claim against his stepdaughter Kelly and $6,000 claim against Blair.

In July 2008, the Elections Canada inquiry found Wilson guilty of three infractions but a compliance agreement, in which Wilson fixed the financial errors, brought the matter to an end. The next month he joined the Green Party.

Phone calls to Mark Marissen, Judi Tyabji Wilson and a Province spokesman were not returned by press time.

Marissen denied any involvement in Wilson’s ouster during a July interview with the Outlook.

“I have no idea what they could mean,” Marissen said of allegations from Wilson’s camp. “I have no idea what they’re trying to suggest.”

APOLOGY TO BILL LOUGHEED

In our Oct. 2nd story “Blair fires back at media” we reported that Blair Wilson had responded to litigation commenced by Bill Lougheed with a counterclaim alleging that Lougheed had forged his wife Norma’s signature on her will, cutting Kelly Wilson out of her mother’s estate when she died in 2007.

In fact, Wilson’s Counterclaim stated that Bill Lougheed:

“Tendered documents containing the forged signature of the late Norma Lougheed for the transfer of a registered investment fund, valued at approximately $450,000 to the Plaintiffs. This registered investment fund was to be given, pursuant to the Will of the late Norma Lougheed, as a gift to her daughter, Kelly.”

The counterclaim did not allege that Bill Lougheed had forged his wife's signature on her will. We apologize to Bill Lougheed for our error.