February 13, 2017
SHARE
CANADALAND
#171 Don’t Fling Mud At The Scud Stud
In 2008, political pundit Don Martin penned a negative screed against former NBC wartime correspondent and - at the time - Alberta provincial electoral candidate Arthur Kent, aka the Scud Stud. Convinced that Martin had violated basic journalistic ethics, Kent took him and the CanWest newspaper chain (later Postmedia) to court for defamation of character.
Jesse Brown
Host & Publisher
Russell Gragg
Producer

In 2008, political pundit Don Martin penned a negative screed against former NBC wartime correspondent and – at the time – Alberta provincial electoral candidate Arthur Kent, aka the Scud Stud.

Convinced that Martin had violated basic journalistic ethics, Kent took him and the CanWest newspaper chain (later Postmedia) to court for defamation of character.

Eight years later, an Alberta court ruled in Kent’s favour.

What issues drove Kent to undertake such an extensive – and likely expensive – lawsuit? And what does the ruling mean for journalists in Canada?

Read the full text of the Court of Queen’s Bench’s decision here.

 

(In the intro to this week’s episode CANADALAND erroneously said that Arthur Kent ran in the 2008 Federal election. He, in fact, ran as a Conservative nominee in the 2008 Alberta provincial election.)

More from this series
Of all the private intelligence firms in the English-language world, there appears to be just one whose speciality is tracking activists. And it has a branch office in Calgary.
March 25, 2024
Andy Mills’ podcasting work for The New York Times won a Peabody Award and a Pulitzer Prize citation. Then he lost it all.
March 18, 2024
Twenty years of school gets you what… An unpaid internship? An e-bike to deliver ramen? And some sort of side hustle? How did we get here? Today we look at work in Canada.
March 11, 2024
If the polls are anywhere near correct Pierre Poilievre is on track to be our next Prime Minister. And he may be in that job for a long time. So today we’re going to dare to speculate: what would years of Conservative rule look like?
March 4, 2024
When an Opioid Crisis hits a First Nation it’s different than in a city. In the city the addicted are mostly strangers. But in Pikwakanagan, if you see somebody behaving strangely on the reserve, you know them. You know your neighbor's business. You are your brother's keeper. So addiction is not just about the pain of losing somebody you love. It's about desperately hoping to save someone you love or protect someone you love.
February 26, 2024
In Sherbrooke, Quebec, a doctor watches the war in Gaza unfold through photos and videos from his family on the ground.
February 19, 2024
In part two of his interview with former Big Tobacco lawyer, Max Krangle, Jesse asks if porn's business model can save the news industry?
February 12, 2024
Tent cities are becoming a common sight in city centres across the country. Is this just the new normal?
February 5, 2024
all podcasts arrow All Podcasts
CANADALAND