The NDP candidate for Columbia River-Revelstoke has been ordered to pay $75,000 for defaming an animal rights activist online.
Gerry Taft, who is also the mayor of Invermere, called Devin Kazakoff a "convicted felon" in the comments section of local news website e-know below a story about deer culling.
In a ruling released yesterday and forwarded to CTV News by a BC Liberal party staffer, Justice Gordon Weatherill called Tafts’s comments “inexcusable” and “deserving of censure and rebuke.”
On January 13, 2016, e-know published a press release decrying deer culling, which usually involves trapping deer in nets and then killing them with a bolt gun, that erroneously named Kazakoff as one of the signatories.
Taft, 35, then wrote: “Signed by the same Devon [sic] Kazzakof [sic] who was convicted of tampering with and destroying deer traps in Kimberley. I wouldn’t be so quick to believe convicted felons who have extreme positions on animal rights issues and who do not respect the decisions of democratically elected local governments doing what the majority of their constituents want.”
Kazakoff, 31, had pled guilty to mischief charges after being caught tampering with deer traps in 2014 but was granted a conditional discharge, meaning he has no criminal record.
Kazafoff was granted $50,000 for damage to his reputation and an additional $25,000 for aggravated damages.
An NDP campaign manager said Taft has apologized to Kazakoff although the candidate disagrees with the decision and is working with his lawyers on an appeal.
Taft was first elected as a district councillor in 2002 and has been mayor of Invermere since 2008.
In an opinion poll conducted by the District of Invermere about culling as one of the methods to control the urban deer population, 40 per cent of eligible voters responded, with 729 in favour of it and 259 opposed.
