Canada Post, its union and Tim Hortons tangled in libel suit

"I wonder if Greene will actually sue? A Notice is cheap and exposes the proposed plaintiff to virtually no costs; and a Notice sounds serious but doesn't actually start an action. An actual libel action can come back and bite a real plaintiff quite badly. Especially if there's a jury. jcm"

April 27, 2008

Tim Naumetz , THE CANADIAN PRESS

OTTAWA - Three of Canada's best-known institutions the post office, its militant union and Tim Hortons are at the centre of an unusual libel action that erupted over a controversial posting in the swelling blogosphere.

The beloved Tims chain is an innocent bystander, in the picture only because Canada Post president Moya Greene accepted a position on its board of directors.

But the main protagonists, Greene and the Canadian Union of Postal Workers, appear to have locked horns in determined fashion after the union's former president posted a blog last month satirizing Greene's decision to take the Tim Hortons seat.

Greene retained high-priced legal help from the Torys firm in Toronto to fire off a notice of intent to sue for libel, saying then-president Deborah Bourque's blog was defamatory.

The posting, which the union has refused to pull down despite the legal threat, mimics a David Letterman top-10 list to quote union member "theories" about why Greene accepted the position despite her full-time job at the helm of Canada Post.

The list includes jabs about Greene avoiding the famed Tim Horton lineups, placing Tim Hortons counters in postal outlets and plants, tongue-in-cheek references to existing Tims franchises at a Toronto postal plant and Canada Post headquarters, and the reverse - postal franchises in Tim Hortons outlets.

Theory No. 1 included a biting reference to "crumbs (or Timbits)" in the latest round of contract talks.

Bourque, since succeeded as the union's president by Denis Lemelin, quickly posted an entry to explain why she and the union weren't backing down.

"I really don't see why anyone would think that my 'Tim Hortons Goes Greene' blog posting is libelous or slanderous," she wrote. "Social satire? Yes . . . but libel and slander? No."

Some observers might think Tims should consider litigation, though letter carriers and postal workers are likely well represented among its devotees.

But, though there is a light side to the libel threat, Liberal MP Mark Holland said Greene's reaction could spell double trouble instead of double double.

"Blogging has sort of become the Wild West of political commentary, and we're still feeling out how that is going to work going forward," he said. "At the end of the day, we want to make sure people have the ability to express an opinion and make a joke without being fearful of a lawsuit."

A Canada Post spokesman was unable to reach the Crown corporation's general legal counsel for comment.

"Obviously, I wouldn't say much about it anyway, because if it's going to court then it's going to be done there," said spokesman John Caines. "But I don't know that it ever will, I don't know."

A request for an interview with Bourque or Lemelin was placed with the union, but there was no response.

The union, which crippled the old post office department and Canada Post with strikes through the 1970s and 1980s, is in the midst of a "fight back" campaign against rural outlet closures, deregulation and feared privatization.

James Morton
1100 - 5255 Yonge Street
Toronto, Ontario
M2N 6P4