Judge orders documents from chief's lawsuit released
Daryl Slade
May 12, 2005
A judge has ordered the release of three more court documents filed as part of Calgary police Chief Jack Beaton's civil quest to unearth potential defendants involved in a website that viciously attacked him and his leadership.
Included in the Wednesday ruling made by Court of Queen's Bench Justice Robert Cairns -- following an application by several media outlets led by Herald -- is Beaton's Nov. 8 affidavit that initially laid out his grave concerns with the Standfirm website that called him, among other things, a "bad apple."
Cairns, however, declined to unseal two other affidavits, and ordered the name of the investigator hired by Beaton and the techniques used to find out who was behind the since-dismantled website, be edited from other documents.
"The identity, modus operandi and techniques of the chief's agent in a continuing investigation is not known to potential defendants . . . other than to say the hunt is on," said Cairns.
"To completely unseal all documents would be frustrating to police and the chief of police."
According to Beaton's affidavit, city police and RCMP technological crime units traced the source of Standfirm website to ThePlanet.com Internet Service, Inc., based in Dallas, Texas.
Search results also led them to a link in Lahore, Pakistan, but he noted both units believe the information about Pakistan is likely false.
The other documents released by the court include a rarely-granted Anton Piller Order, which permitted Beaton to seize a laptop from the southwest home of Jann Vahey and her husband Rene Fisher on April 2 to prevent potential evidence from being destroyed.
He also released an order for Shaw Communications Inc. to disclose the identity of the client, person or subscriber who was using the Internet protocol address of the Standfirm website, and any records that pertained to the website.
Herald lawyer Scott Watson, who wanted the entire file opened for public scrutiny, called Cairns' ruling "mixed results."
"It was a partial success," Watson said outside court.
"The court has directed some of the information still remain under seal, information which discloses the identity of the investigator and the techniques the chief is using to locate those anonymous John Does."
He said he could not "look into that crystal ball with any certainty" when the remainder of the documents would be unsealed.
However, Beaton's lawyer Grant Stapon earlier told the judge the chief wants everything to be made public once the quest is completed, but doing so now could jeopardize the investigation.
"There's no effort to hide what we're doing, only to protect a live investigation and the investigator's techniques of what he has learned," said Stapon, adding a two- or three-month extension should suffice.
Beaton settled a lawsuit last week that led to a $5,000 payment and an apology from Vahey and Fisher for their participation in the website that heavily criticized the police force and Beaton's leadership.
Beaton settled a lawsuit last week that led to a $5,000 payment and an apology from Vahey and Fisher for their participation in the website that heavily criticized the police force and Beaton's leadership.
He declined comment on Wednesday, deferring to Stapon.
© Calgary Herald 2005