Suit Could Hold Paper Responsible for Comments and Internet Repetitions

Dr. Andrew Weaver, one of the most respected climate scientists in Canada and one of the best climate modellers in the world, has launched a libel suit against the National Post newspaper and its publisher, editors and three writer: Terence Corcoran, Peter Foster and Kevin Libin.

In the words of a news release broadcast today, the suit is for “a series of unjustified libels based on grossly irresponsible falsehoods that have gone viral on the Internet.”

The 48-page Statement of Claim (download the PDF version here) sets out a National Post  pattern of reporting critical and erroneous material about Weaver and, in recent times, refusing to retract or correct when inaccuracies are brought to the paper’s attention. An obvious example was an allegation that Weaver had (or was about to) quit his Nobel-winning role in the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change - an allegation Weaver dismissed out of hand.

Lorne Gunter, part of the National Post climate change denier team (see also Terry Corcoran, Larry Solomon), has revived the fraudulent claim that advancing world glaciers demonstrate an end to climate change.

Gunter claimed in a National Post opinion piece on Monday that "worldwide, there are nearly half as many glaciers advancing as retreating." And other, unsuspecting or conspiratorial papers under the wing of Canada's largest news conglomerate (CanWest Global) have been picking the story up through the week. (See Vancouver Sun)

But the claim - unsourced in Gunter's article - appears to be purest fiction.

Tim Lambert at Deltoid has a hilarious wrap of the recent inaccuracies - nay, outright lies - of the ever-entertaining Christopher Walter, Third Viscount Monckton of Brenchley, denier for hire.

You have to assume that Canada's National Post is guilty of casual disregard for journalistic integrity rather than strategic fear-mongering, but the newspaper made space on its front page today for a vision of Nazi-occupied France - and suggested that's what we're facing if we try to attend to climate change.

Having struggled valiantly over the years to provide a home for any writer or "scientist" who will challenge the global climate change consensus, Canada's National Post has started a series on "The Deniers," people who the Post would laud for trying to undermine Canada's commitment to climate change policy.

First in the series was a "defence" of the esteemed statistician, Dr. Edward Wegman…