Bell Media, TSN and a reporter are the defendants in a $500,000 lawsuit over allegations made within the documentary Damaged: Contained in the Poisonous Tradition of Canadian Gymnastics
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A Crave TV documentary about gymnastics in Canada contained defamatory content material a couple of Calgary membership and its CEO, based on a $500,000 lawsuit.
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The Calgary Gymnastics Middle (CGC) and CEO Brett MacAuley declare the 90-minute documentary, co-produced by TSN and CTV’s W5, damages their popularity each straight and by insinuatingly linking them to extra abusive habits within the sport.
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“Each CGC and Mr. MacAuley are prominently featured within the Crave documentary and are recognized as perpetrators of assault, harassment, abuse and fostering a tradition that’s ‘rife with abusive habits,'” says their assertion of declare, launched Wednesday by Postmedia has been acquired.
The documentary, Damaged: Contained in the Poisonous Tradition of Canadian Gymnastics, first aired on the streaming service final November 5 and remains to be accessible to Crave subscribers.
Allegations of sexual abuse make 25-minute phase defamatory, based on assertion of declare
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The declare factors out that the phase associated to MacAuley and the membership is roughly 25 minutes lengthy and the whole program “straight, or by the use of insinuation or implication,” compares them to people concerned in prison actions.
“The Crave documentary incorporates allegations of sexual abuse and sexual misconduct, which make the whole phase and Crave documentary defamatory,” the lawsuit states.
Among the many allegations of what the swimsuit calls “comparatively defamatory content material” is “depicting Mr. MacAuley with coaches who’ve been ‘arrested and charged with a number of counts of sexual abuse,'” it mentioned.
“The defamatory content material and the comparative defamatory content material . . . means that CGC and mr. MacAuley are perpetrators and concealers of assault, harassment and abuse of their scholar/athletes.”
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The lawsuit names Bell Media, Crave’s guardian firm, BCE Inc., The Sports activities Community Inc. and correspondent Rick Westhead as defendants.
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Bell, TSN refused to take away documentary from Crave, declare says
It says the documentary mentioned MacAuley and CGC “refused or didn’t reply to the filmmakers’ request for an on-camera interview,” regardless of the CEO responding to an electronic mail request on January 10, 2022 to conduct an interview by asking for “an inventory of questions you prefer to us to reply.”
“The cheap impression left with a viewer is that CGC and Mr. MacAuley both refused to be interviewed or ignored the request, each of that are false statements.”
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The impact of the documentary “was to . . . abuse CGC and mr. MacAuley throughout the Canadian panorama, together with with, however not restricted to, different media, potential college students, athletes, sponsors, donors, shoppers and the Albertan and Canadian public at massive,” the declare states.
The lawsuit says the plaintiffs requested for the documentary to be faraway from the streaming service on December 15, 2022, however the defendants refused.
It seeks normal damages of $200,000 every for the membership and MacAuley, in addition to punitive damages of $100,000 and an injunction completely eradicating this system from public entry.
Statements of protection contesting the unproven allegations within the lawsuit haven’t been filed.
KMartin@postmedia.com
Twitter: @KMartinCourts
