Student association sues KSA Truth website

By Matt DiMera
[news editor]

The Kwantlen Student Association is headed to court again, alleging that a website has defamed them.

The KSA and director of finance Balninna Sandhu filed a notice of civil claim in B.C. Supreme Court Sept. 1 against the unknown publisher or publishers of the ksatruth.ca website.

The suit seeks an interim and permanent injunction preventing the operator of ksatruth.ca from publishing the allegedly libelous statements online or in print and also preventing any other parties from “publishing or causing to be published any material on the internet or otherwise from the Defendant which pertains directly or indirectly to the Plaintiffs.”

The KSA and Sandhu are also seeking general, special, aggravated and punitive damages and costs. The claim refers to the website publisher as John Doe, stating that the KSA does not know his, her or their identity.

None of the claims made by the KSA and Sandhu have been proven in court.

The claim further alleges that the website falsely accuses Sandhu and the KSA by way of innuendo of being dishonest or crooked, corrupt, thieves, incompetent and unaccountable, lacking transparency, stealing money receive from students at KPU for personal gain, mismanaging funds received from students at KPU, being outrageous and scandalous in their actions and having deliberately set out to obfuscate and hide monetary transactions for their own personal benefit.

It also alleges that the unknown publishers of the website have defamed the KSA and Sandhu in online postings, and conversations or emails.

It further claims that the website is “dedicated to lowering the way the Kwantlen Student Association and its directors, including Sandhu, are perceived by society by exposing it to contempt and ridicule.”

The claim alleges that the domain name for ksatruth.ca was registered Feb. 11, 2011. and began publishing allegedly defamatory material Aug. 22, 2011.

The suit also claims that the KSA and its directors, including Sandhu, “have been greatly injured in their character, credit, and professional reputation, and have suffered damage.”

The claim further alleges that the alleged defamation was “part of a deliberate campaign to defame the Plaintiffs to as broad an audience as possible.”

Thirteen new additional pages about the KSA have been posted to the website since the notice of civil claim was filed in court Sept. 1.

KSA director of finance, Nina Sandhu is confident that the KSA will win in court.

“Generally the matter is before the courts so there’s not a lot I can comment on,” said Sandhu.”

She said that while defamation is often a grey area, the KSA’s lawyer from Harper Grey, Daniel Reid, has advised her that “this one of those clearcut black and white defamation cases that they feel very strongly about.”

KSA president and spokesperson Harman “Sean Birdman” Bassi refused requests for an interview, when contacted by The Runner Sept. 22.