Speaking to Climate Depot’s Marc Morano, Ball explained:
“The judge ruled that Weaver was not defamed by me and dismissed the claim completely. This was after almost seven years and thousands of dollars in legal costs.” But Ball lamented, “There are no media reports and my guess is there won’t be any.”
Professor Andrew Weaver is a champion of Canadian greens and Desmogblog (a site funded by a convicted criminal). View the lawsuit here.
One Down, One to Go!
Dr Ball, a 79-year-old retired climate professor has for decades been a staunch critic of what many see as alarmist junk science peddled by the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC).
The Weaver-v-Ball trial is one of the three lawsuits Dr Ball received from the same hotshot libel lawyer, Roger McConchie, on behalf of three prominent members of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). The most high-profile of the cases being the still outstanding libel suit Dr Ball defends against Michael ‘hockey stick’ Mann.
Over the six years while these cases were running Dr Ball has witnessed relentless and systemic media bias. He recalls:
“At 09:30 on the day the trial started we were told there was no judge or courtroom assigned. Amazingly and incorrectly, that information was reported almost immediately on media claiming the trial was postponed. It wasn’t, because by 11:00 a judge and courtroom were assigned and the trail began at 11:30. The postponement story likely explained why no media attended a single day of the three-week trial. The nature of the case that involves a so-called climate change denier will likely also be ignored.”
A Back Story of Systemic Persecution
The first of three climate lawsuits served on Ball was filed on behalf of Gordon McBean, a former Assistant Deputy Minister at Environment Canada. He chaired the founding meeting of the IPCC in 1985. On the McBean case Ball chose to avoid a legal battle explaining:
“My wife and I decided not to fight the McBean case because of the legal cost involved. We simply withdrew the article.”
Not surprisingly, alarmists trumpeted a resounding defeat for Ball, who was repeatedly targeted for further personal attacks on his academic credentials and competency to comment on climate matters.
In 2010 Ball had joined with a forward-looking group of climate researchers exposing grave flaws in the greenhouse gas theory, the cornerstone of the science of man-made global warming. Ball was lead author of their book ‘Slaying the Sky Dragon: Death of the Greenhouse Gas Theory’ and co-founder of Principia Scientific International (PSI).
Ball and fellow Slayer and PSI co-founder John O’Sullivan published a series of popular articles with Canada Free Press (CFP) denouncing the climate fraud. One of Ball’s pieces criticised Professor Andrew Weaver, computer modeller and author on four of the IPCC Reports (1995, 2001, 2007 and 2013).
Almost immediately Ball was again under attack and was notified that CFP retracted all Ball’s and O’Sullivan’s articles.
“We learned Canada Free Press (CFP) had accepted and published an apology written by McConchie. I was not consulted or even informed that this was happening. Meanwhile we had hired Michael Scherr, a defamation lawyer with Pearlman Lindholm in Victoria BC,“ said Ball.
Libel expert, Roger McConchie had also hit Ball with a defamation suit on Weaver’s behalf.
But matters soon got worse. Within nine days McConchie served Ball with another lawsuit. This time on behalf of Penn. State climate professor, Michael Mann. Ball had similarly published a critical piece exposing Mann’s infamous “hockey stick” graph. Mann’s graph had dominated the 2001 IPCC Report and became what Professor Ross McKitrick called the “poster child of global warming.”
McConchie also filed lawsuits against the publication in each case, which created confusion and conflict as they wanted to settle.
Saved by Grassroots Financial Aid
When Dr Ball received the Weaver lawsuit he had already decided he would not be bullied into silence by what many considered to be SLAPP (Strategic Lawsuits Against Public Participation).
“We spent all our savings on legal fees before John O’Sullivan helped us set up a web site and a Paypal donation tab,” adds Ball.
It seemed obvious to many grassroots skeptics that there was a conspiracy among deep-pocketed pro-greens to make an example of Ball.
The Slayers/PSI saw that the right strategy to help their friend and colleague was to seek to defend this brace of SLAPP suits by embarking a massive online crowd funding campaign to meet what was to prove multi-million dollar legal costs.
Now for Michael Mann’s SLAPP Suit
Now Weaver is beaten only the Mann case is left to be decided. The Mann trial was scheduled for February 20, 2017. About a month before the trial, Mann requested an adjournment. It is normal for Canadian courts to grant an adjournment before a trial begins in the hope of an out-of-court settlement. “I was opposed but had little choice”, says Ball.
The Mann case is interesting because it was filed in the supreme Court of British Columbia (BC) by an American citizen from Pennsylvania.
“This is something I said after a public presentation about the deception of manmade global warming in Winnipeg, Manitoba. BC had anti-SLAPP legislation but for some reason cancelled it. Now only two of ten Canadian Provinces, the other is Ontario, do not have anti-SLAPP legislation,” observes Dr Ball
Ball has made it clear he is now preparing to bring the Mann case back to the court after Mann made a set of “concessions” in February 2017. Ball remains resolute Mann “belongs in the state pen, not Penn. State“and refuses to be cowed by either convicted or un-convicted criminals.
Listen to James Delingpole’s interview of Tim Ball about ‘climate McCarthyism’
John O’Sullivan, CEO, Principia Scientific International (PSI). PSI is legally incorporated in the UK as a non-profit serving a charitable purpose to advance knowledge of the traditional scientific method, as per the philosophy and ideas of Karl Popper.
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