Lions Bay residents found guilty of defamation
BC Supreme Court Justice Gordon Funt awarded more than $108,000 to a Lions Bay couple this week, the final result of a defamation trial between neighbours that was held last year.
Tracey Song and George Liu were together ordered to pay the penalty primarily for remarks that were made in person and on the social media app 'WeChat' about Cindy and Richard David, following a falling out between the neighbours over a construction project that impacted their shared driveway.
According to the judgement, relations between the neighbours were cordial until the Davids began constructing a carport in April, 2021. The job was completed by March, 2022, whereupon the Liu/Song family complained that the shared driveway had been damaged during the construction. A disagreement ensued, and accelerated to namecalling in person and online.
Justice Funt said that in April, 2022, Liu libelled Cindy David in a WeChat forum, which he said serves Chinese-speaking residents in Lions Bay. Funt said Liu accused David of being "a tax evader, a fraudster, a public resource abuser and, staggeringly, the vile sting that she uses her cancer for personal gain."
The court heard how Cindy David had been diagnosed and begun treatment for ovarian cancer in 2018, but that as of December, 2024, her prognosis was terminal.
In the course of the judgement, Justice Funt determined that while Cindy and Richard David proved to be truthful and credible witnesses, both Liu and Song were not.
As a result, Funt ordered Song to pay the Davids $12,500 in damages for obstructing their driveway. Liu was ordered to pay $82,000 to Cindy David for defamation, and $14,250 to Richard David, which included both general and punitive damages.
Funt also sorted out the division of costs for the driveway repair that initiated the animosity between the neighbours.
The trial was held over 34 days in 2024, and on the final day of the trial George Liu posted an apology on both WeChat, and on the local Lions Bay Neighbours Facebook page. In his post, Liu acknowledged that remarks he made in April of 2022 were "a total fabrication", and that he"unreservedly apologized to the Davids for the hurt and harm caused to them."
Liu also sent apologies to Constable H. Khan of the Squamish RCMP and to the Village's Chief Administrative Officer Ross Blackwell, who both had been recipients of emails containing Liu's remarks about his neighbours.
The Facebook post was made on December 20, but appears to have since been taken down. In his judgement, Funt acknowledged the public apology and reduced the general damages by five percent as a result.
However, he called Liu's online attack on Cindy David "so malicious, oppressive and high-handed that it offends the court’s sense of decency," and said that the punitive element was "wholly appropriate."
As a part of the litigation, Liu and Song countersued the Davids, on the grounds that they had called him a liar. Funt dismissed this countersuit, saying "Mr. Liu had no basis for his defamation of Ms. David or Mr. David. In short, Mr. Liu was a liar."
The judge noted that social media offers an "unknown scope of publication on the Internet", and said it is important that the Court make an award that ensures members of the public, while enjoying free expression, are deterred from malicious, oppressive, and high-handed conduct.
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