EDMONTON, Alberta — A former Alberta Speaker filed an appeal Tuesday of a decision upholding the province’s right to pay the costs of Stockwell Day’s defamation suit.
David Carter argues in his notice of appeal that an insurance adjuster, not the Alberta legislature, made the decision to pay Day’s bills.
An insurance fund for government employees covered Day’s $792,000 legal bills and penalty arising from the lawsuit by lawyer Lorne Goddard of Red Deer, Alberta
The suit arose in 1999, after Day, then Alberta’s treasury minister, wrote a letter to a Red Deer newspaper drawing links between Goddard’s personal views and those of a client he was defending in court on a child pornography charge.
Carter challenged the Alberta government’s decision to pay the costs, saying legislators never had the chance to consider the bills.
But Justice Ged Hawco ruled last month the government was within its jurisdiction to pay.
“What we want the court to do is look at the issue of who had the authority to pay Mr. Day,” said Michael Ritter, one of Carter’s lawyers and the former chief parliamentary counsel for the Alberta government.
