Ezra Levant is shown at the University of Ottawa in Ottawa on Tuesday, March 23, 2010. A Saskatchewan lawyer is alleging Sun News Network host Levant defamed him in a series of blog posts and is seeking $100,000 in damages. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Pawel Dwulit
March 03, 2014 - 9:29 AM
TORONTO - A Saskatchewan lawyer is alleging Sun News Network host Ezra Levant defamed him in a series of blog posts and is seeking $100,000 in damages.
Khurrum Awan was completing his articling and looking for work as a lawyer when he alleges the most egregious libels were posted.
The trial got underway in Toronto today with Awan's lawyer, Brian Shiller, saying in his opening statement that Levant labelled Awan a jihadist, an anti-Semite, a liar, a perjuror and alleged that he acted in a conflict of interest.
Levant's posts on his personal blog centred around Awan's testimony at a British Columbia Human Rights Tribunal case about a complaint over an article in Maclean's magazine from 2006, titled "The future belongs to Islam."
Awan was a law student when the article was published and was one of a group of students who said they were concerned the article was Islamophobic, though he was not the complainant to the human rights tribunal.
Levant's lawyer, Iain MacKinnon, says the defence is primarily one of fair comment.
News from © The Canadian Press, 2014