McHale, Vandermaas threaten lawsuit against Minister of Aboriginal Affairs

http://www.sachem.ca/news/article/125600


Mark Vandermaas served Ontario Aboriginal Affairs Minister Michael Bryant with letters, Tuesday, notifying the minister that Vandermaas and Gary McHale intend to start legal action under the Libel and Slander Act unless the minister apologizes and offers to compensate both men.
Vandermaas, who presented Bryant with the letters prior to a public meeting between the minister and Haldimand County Council, and McHale say in the letters they were defamed by comments by Bryant that appeared in a Toronto Star/Canadian Press story.
The letters say that on April 07, 2008 the Star and CP reported that Bryant said a human rights ruling by the Ontario Human Rights Commission that requested that OPP Commissioner Julian Fantino and other OPP officers attend a mediation session with Vandermaas: "doesn't help resolve a complex situation dating back hundreds of years."
The story also paraphrased Bryant as saying: "Most people don't have much sympathy for Vandermaas or McHale after their tense rallies in the divided town."
Bryant is then quoted as saying: "Their activity, generally speaking, is extremely harmful and, as far as I can tell, unwelcome by everybody,"
"I know a lot of people in Caledonia feel that they're individuals who are just trying to get attention for themselves and are, in fact, stirring it up," Bryant is quoted as saying.
Vandermaas, says in his letter the innuendo from Bryant's remarks is that Vandermaas had no right to complain to the Human Rights Commission "and that I acted maliciously against the public interest by doing so."
Both the three-page letters from McHale and Vandermaas also say that: "It is clear from any reasonable reading of the Toronto Star/Canadian Press article that your comments were designed to discredit me and to diminish my reputation in the community. I am gravely concerned that your comments will be used by critics of my endeavours to demean and damage my reputation, diminish my credibility and undermine my lawful initiatives."
Both Vandermaas and McHale claim to have been defamed.
The allegations contained in the letters have not been presented to nor adjudicated by a court of law nor had Bryant, at press time, responded to them.