June 23, 2011 (LifeSiteNews.com) – On February 15 we advised our readers that LifeSiteNews was hit with a lawsuit in late December. The suit was from Fr. Raymond Gravel, who is a Quebec media personality, former Member of Parliament with the Bloc Quebecois and a Catholic priest in the diocese of Joliette, Quebec. Fr. Gravel is seeking damages totaling $500,000. New readers who are not familiar with this case may see the original announcement by clicking here.
Named in the lawsuit are LifeSiteNews Canada, five of its staff and also Campagne Quebec Vie, – a Quebec pro-life group based in Montreal and one of its previous staff members.
We are extremely grateful to the many supporters who responded to our one-time financial appeal in February to help us carry on the LifeSiteNews mission while enduring the substantial long term costs associated with our legal defense.
Status of the Case
The presentation of our all important preliminary motions has been held up until this week because of a a number of delaying factors beyond our control that have occurred since February.
Until we have presented our written defense, LifeSiteNews is still limited by the demands of judicial prudence from providing details to the public or from responding to new statements by Fr. Gravel.
You can imagine how difficult that is for us! However, we will give you as much information as we can.
Before presenting the written initial defense to the court, our lawyer, Jean-Yves Côté, has determined that we must present some very important preliminary motions to the Quebec court. There have been significant delays in getting to this stage and then having our motions heard and ruled upon.
This week, we are finally able to begin the preliminary motion process.
Reasons for Delays
Campagne Quebec Vie leader Georges Buscemi advised us some time ago that he and Fr. Gravel were exploring the possibility of a settlement between the two parties. While this went on for several weeks our lawyer had to suspend the preliminary motion efforts. Campagne Quebec Vie eventually advised us that a settlement was not reached and so we could have once again proceeded, except for other developments.
An April 16 article in Quebec’s Le Devoir newspaper explained another delay lasting about three weeks, necessitated by a trip by Fr. Gravel to Europe. According to the news report, that trip included a meeting with the secretary to the head of the Congregation of the Doctrine of the Faith in the Vatican.
The following are three translated excerpts from the original French article:
“Abbé Gravel is en route to Rome, where he will give his point of view concerning a controversy involving an anti-abortion website, since he always feels “close to being pushed out the door”’
“The Lanaudière priest hopes to give his side of the story when he meets the secretary of Cardinal Levada, prefect for the congregation of the Faith, who will meet him Thursday.”
“According to Raymond Gravel, it is in the interest of the Church to accept his positions on the subject of homosexuality and abortion, since these correspond to the values of Quebeckers. “If not, the Church will die here.”’
Media Coverage of the Case
In the meantime, there has been some additional media coverage of the case. The most notable was the National Post full page report of March 5 to which we partly responded in a letter published in full by the Post on March 8 and in an editorial on March 10. Again, because of legal constraints, we were not able to comment on Fr. Gravel’s charges and our editorial was limited to addressing mainly the comments of Fr. Thomas Rosica against LifeSitenews in the Post article.
If you wish to learn what some other media have reported about the case see the following:
Pro-Life News Service Sued by Priest, May Shut Down by Alex Newman – New American, Feb. 17, 2011
Ex-MP, ex-prostitute sues pro-life group by Brian Lilley, Toronto Sun – Feb. 18, 2011- ‘Pro-choice’ priest-politician launches court attack on LifeSite News – catholicculture.org – Feb. 15, 2011
Fr. Gravel has also made some other new public statements or writings about the case.
In late May, on his blog he commented regarding LifeSiteNews and claimed that Development and Peace was falsely accused of financing abortion clinics in Mexico. His exact wording was “Développement et Paix, a été faussement accusé de financer des cliniques d’avortement au Mexique.” We leave it to our readers to determine the validity of the accusation as we cannot respond at this time.
Defense Costs Will Now Rise
Our defense expenses will considerably increase as the case now finally advances to the preliminary motion court appearances, discovery interviews and the final writing and presentation of our written defense. By that time we will have a far better idea of the extent and estimated overall cost of our legal defense.
After the above items are completed the defense costs will take a much larger leap if and when the actual trial is scheduled and takes place next year or in 2013.
We must conclude by emphasizing that we are confident that the case will be proven to have no merit, the facts are on our side, and our reporting on Fr. Gravel has always adhered to high standards of truth, media professionalism, and Christian charity.
Nevertheless, we have no choice but to engage in this legal process and expend financial resources and considerable staff time on the ongoing effort.
With all the above in mind we look forward to a successful final outcome to this special challenge that has been added to our already very challenging daily mission on your behalf.
Your generous on-going financial and prayer support and your encouragement has been of great benefit to us during this time. We trust that many LifeSiteNews readers will continue to generously respond to our particular needs related to this situation. We will keep you abreast of the situation as much as possible.
For Life and Family,
John-Henry Westen
Editor-in-Chief
Steve Jalsevac
Managing Director
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