A shuttered Langley traffic control company and its top executives must pay $1.5 million in damages for defaming a competitor during the struggle for a lucrative government contract, B.C. Court of Appeal judges have ruled.
The Nov. 6 ruling against Valley Traffic Systems (VTS), its former president and owner Phillip Jackman, and its former vice-president Trevor Paine is the latest step in a legal saga that began more than a decade ago, when Valley Traffic and the Ansan Group were each in contention to win millions in business from BC Hydro.
The key figure in the case was Remon Hanna, who had previously worked with the Ansan Group and its head, Raoul Malak. Malak and Hanna suffered a major falling out, and Hanna offered his services to VTS in 2012.
Hanna would eventually be paid $2.4 million by VTS, and had cards listing his position as a "senior contract manager" for the company, but according to testimony at previous trials, the documentation of Hanna's deal with VTS was literally written on a single sticky note.
In 2012, Hanna launched multiple defamatory websites with names like “Raoul Malak Uncovered” and “Ansan Traffic Group Exposed,” falsely alleging that Malak was involved in criminal activity and in kickback schemes.
The judge in an earlier phase of the lengthy court proceedings described the article as a “hit piece.”
Hanna and senior executives with VTS, including Jackman, also sent links to the articles to numerous people, including officials at Langley City and Township, the City of Maple Ridge, and Telus. Hanna sent emails to then-B.C. premier Christy Clark, and Rich Coleman, then a longtime Langley MLA and minister in charge of BC Hydro.
Malak tried to shut down the defamation campaign, but it continued through 2012 until the competition for the contract was over.
The legal saga began with a first trial in 2017 that found Hanna, VTS, Jackman, and Paine liable. A 2019 appeal led to a partial overturning of the findings against Jackman, Paine, and VTS, and a new trial that concluded in 2023, with the judge again finding all the defendants jointly and severally liable. Hanna didn't participate after the first trial, but Jackman, Paine, and VTS appealed again.
This time, Appeal Court Justice Lauri Ann Fenlon found that the ruling was correct and refused to overturn any aspect of it, including the $1.5 million in damages. The two other judges on the three-judge appeal panel agreed.
"The award of damages to The Ansan Group was high, but in these circumstances I cannot find that it was inordinately so," Fenlon wrote in her decision.
She noted that the attacks targeted both Malak personally and his companies, and that he feared people he dealt with professionally would take accusations of kickback schemes seriously.
"The judge cited his testimony that being 'accused of being a drug dealer or a money launderer or a pimp… [were] very serious allegations… attacking my integrity and the integrity of my companies,'" Fenlon wrote.
Fenlon also went through a series of arguments that the financial damages were too high or improper for various reasons, ultimately dismissing all of them.
"Here, the appellants engaged in a common design to defame the respondents to gain a competitive advantage," Fenlon wrote. "They hired Mr. Hanna to carry out a strategic campaign of defamation, were fully aware of its content and scope, and paid Mr. Hanna $2.4 million for his efforts. In these circumstances, the conduct of all of the defendants was equally worthy of rebuke."
Lawyer Thomas Moran, speaking for the defendants, said his clients disagreed with the Court of Appeal decision.
"We are reviewing the decision, and our clients are considering their options, including a further appeal," Moran said in an email to the Langley Advance Times.
Neither Valley Traffic Systems nor Ansan still exists as an independent company.
In 2020, Ansan was bought by Universal Group, and three months later, the same firm acquired Valley Traffic Systems.
