(Cook, above, isn't smiling now)
Back in April I gave props to filmmaker* Steven Schnoor for filing a defamation lawsuit against former Canadian ambassador to Guatemala (and Haiti), Kenneth Cook. I am happy to pass along that on June 16th:
"an Ontario judge ruled that former Canadian Ambassador to Guatemala, Kenneth Cook, slandered Ph.D. student and videographer Steven Schnoor by making false statements about a documentary video that Schnoor made that was critical of the practices of a Canadian mining company...Justice Thomson held that the Ambassador’s statements were defamatory and were not true. She further held that “the Ambassador was reckless”, and that “he should have known better”. Justice Thomson also drew attention to the behaviour of the Canadian government in the months after the defamatory comments were spoken. She held that the “dead silence” that Schnoor received in response to his request for an explanation, retraction and apology, was “spiteful and oppressive."
Speaking of [near-] 'dead silence,' with the exception of the Toronto Star, who reported that Cook was found "guilty of slander," not a single other mainstream news agency has picked up the story, maintaining the corporate media's shameful record of shielding Canadian corporations' dirty practices abroad. Congratulations are in order for Mr. Schnoor, although much work remains to be done in exposing and bringing to account Canada's transnational corporate criminals and their accomplices in (and/or acting on behalf of ) Ottawa.
*If you haven't seen the film in question, please watch it here.