'I’M WILLING TO BE A TEAM PLAYER': Caylan Ford recounts resignation talks in court

CALGARY — Justice Lorena Harris heard the first day of cross-examination of former UCP candidate Caylan Ford on Thursday as her $7.65 million defamation lawsuit against political activist and former Conservative candidate Karim Jivraj and several media organizations including the CBC and Press Progress continues in Calgary.During the cross-examination the plaintiff described the events leading up to leaked Facebook Messenger correspondence between Ford and Jivraj which became the subject of controversy during the 2019 UCP candidate race in the Calgary-Mountain View riding.Her testimony focused primarily on a media inquiry from Press Progress — an NDP-linked media outlet — over a story it was publishing regarding the Facebook messages.Ford told the court that by early 2019 she already had a negative view of Press Progress after it had published several stories about her.“By this time, Press Progress had already published three defamatory articles about me,” Ford stated, characterizing the outlet as publishing articles “critical of the Conservative Party.”The situation came to a head on March 18, 2019 when she received an email from Press Progress reporter Luke LeBrun requesting comment on quotations attributed to her from private online conversations.The inquiry came just days after the Christchurch mosque shootings in New Zealand, where a gunman killed dozens of people at two mosques.Ford told the court she was aware of the attack and its global impact at the time, describing the attacker’s ideology as referencing elements of “eco-fascism” and white identity..'OUTRIGHT LIES': Caylan Ford tells court Jivraj spread false claims during UCP race, later alleged assault .Counsel Perry Mack — representing the Broadbent Institute, a think tank whose independent news division is Press Progress — put to Ford that remarks touching on topics such as white supremacy could be viewed differently in the immediate aftermath of the attack.Ford testified that when she read the Press Progress inquiry she treated it as a campaign issue and quickly alerted communications staff within the UCP campaign.She said she contacted Matthew Solberg, who was described as director of communications for the UCP campaign.Text messages read to the court showed Ford contacted Solberg shortly after receiving LeBrun’s email and asked if there was value in responding to Press Progress or questioning the quotations.Ford acknowledged that her message indicated she viewed the situation as “urgent.”She testified that Solberg initially did not respond because he was involved with another member of the party’s press conference but later received a phone call from him and other campaign officials.During the call Ford said the officials asked whether she still possessed the original records of the private messages cited in the Press Progress inquiry but she told them she had deleted them roughly a year prior at the request of Jivraj, leaving her unable to reconstruct the context of the messages.Campaign officials also asked whether the quotations were genuine and Ford said she could not confirm their exact wording.However, Ford said some of the language in the excerpts seemed unusual to her, including references to “race” and phrases such as “demographic replacement of white peoples,” which she said did not sound like the language she would normally use and could have been taken out of context.According to Ford, campaign officials’ response was that Press Progress would likely publish the story regardless.“I didn’t yet have a clear sense of how big it would be,” Ford said.Under questioning from Mack, the plaintiff stated she did not ask LeBrun for additional time to respond nor did she dispute the quotations with the reporter before publication..Opening statements heard in Caylan Ford defamation trial against CBC, Press Progress, Toronto Star, others.She also confirmed she did not tell the reporter that excerpts might have been taken out of context or that she no longer possessed the original message records.Later during the testimony Mack asked Ford why she had deleted the Facebook Messenger conversation in mid-March 2018 after Jivraj had asked her to do so and if she was trying to have plausible deniability.“No,” Ford told the court.“There was not deep thought that went into this process... I am not a cunning person, and I'm not very good at anticipating cunning being used against me.”After the story was published, she said UCP officials began receiving calls from media outlets and were trying to assess the implications of the story during phone calls later in the evening.As the controversy spread, Ford added that after deliberation, officials called her and told her she should resign, despite her initially wanting to challenge the allegations publicly.“I communicated to the party that I'm willing to be a team player if [they] come to the decision that I should resign,” she said.Ford later composed a resignation letter she said took her roughly 15 minutes to write.Mack cited material from the letter that could have been provided to LeBrun as a response before publication to which Ford replied, “yes.”“I had a chance to respond to Mr. LeBrun. I did not have a chance to respond to the article.”She also told the court that LeBrun did eventually receive a statement after the story was published, but that Press Progress did not update the article.

'I’M WILLING TO BE A TEAM PLAYER': Caylan Ford recounts resignation talks in court

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