Prelude
In Marshall Smith’s Statement of claim for defamation Abpolecon.ca was mentioned in paragraph 49 which listed “major Canadian news outlets reporting on and referring to the statement found in the Statement of Claim and in the Reply to Statement of Defence. These publications include but are not limited to:
- The Globe and Mail;
- Global News;
- The CBC;
- CTV News;
- The Edmonton Journal
- CityNews Edmonton; and
- AB Pol Econ.”
Although humbled by being included in the list of “major Canadian news outlets,” I am wary about commenting on the Smith-Mentzelopoulos et. al defamation lawsuit and the ongoing litigation relating to Athan Mentzelopoulos’s wrongful dismissal suit. Suffice to say I remain careful in reporting the specific allegations contained in the statements of claim and responses to the statements which Mentzelopoulos’s lawyers in their Statement of Defence (SoD) claim are “subject to absolute privilege.”
I will shortly publish a separate post on the Statements of Defence of Mentzelopoulos and The Globe and Mail and Carrie Tait.
Surveillance
What has emerged recently in the media about surveillance of Carrie Tait of The Globe and Mail is deeply disturbing and appears intended to put a chill on a particular journalist following what the NDP have labelled the “Corrupt Care” affair. The instances of surveillance in these news reports reported did not include a surveillance mentioned in documents filed in the Mentzelopoulos litigation. In paragraph 47 of an affidavit filed with the Alberta Court of King’s Bench by Mentzelopoulos on 9 June 2025, the former AHS CEO alleged that she was told by Marshall Smith that Carrie Tait was seen talking to a AHS Senior Program Officer for Community Affairs and Communications at the Calgary Stampede in 2024. Mr. Smith believed that this “incident reflected poorly” on Mentzelopoulos. She accepted this criticism and discussed the incident to “caution” the employee.
Another example of surveillance was alleged by Mentzelopoulos in paragraph 20 of her SoC was pressure from Andre Tremblay the Deputy Health Minister ” to terminate purported critics of the Government including Carmelle Steinke, Jeremy Theal, and Sherri Kashuba. In support of this pressure from Tremblay, the Chief of Staff of Minister LaGrange sent Mentzelopoulos a “screenshot of the allegedly offensive tweet that had been “liked” by one of these individuals (emphasis added).” This level of surveillance of government employees is worrisome. The fact that political staff are monitoring government employees’ likes on their presumably private time is alarming and unfortunately speaks to political priorities of control and command.
Defamation Suit
On 14 May, Marshall Smith, the former Chief of Staff to Premier Danielle Smith (no relation to the premier) filed a defamation suit against The Globe and Mail, Carrie Tait a reporter for the Globe, Athana Mentzelopoulos, and “John Doe.”
Damages being sought by Smith include:
- General damages in the aggregate of $5-million against The Globe and Mail, Tait and Mentzelopolous based on the alleged defamation;
- Special damages of $5-million for Smith ‘s loss of income and loss of future earnings;
- Aggravated damages of $500,000 against Carrie Tait for intentional and malicious publication defaming Smith;
- Aggravated damages of $500,000 against Athana Mentzelopoulos for intentional and malicious publication defaming Smith;
- Punitive damages of $1-million against The Globe and Mail and Tait, jointly “for their high-handed and reprehensible conduct in intentionally and maliciously publishing false statements defaming Smith.”
The lawsuit has been filed against the background of a wrongful dismissal suit by Alberta Health Services’ former CEO, which has already produced two appeals and decisions (April and June) by Alberta’s Court of Appeal. (The various consent orders, appeals and the intervention of Alberta’s Auditor General as an intervenor will be dealt with in another Post). The Alberta Court of Appeal has responded in a timely fashion to the litigation and litigation strategies of Mentzelopoulos have been changed. The parties to the wrongful dismissal suit include Alberta Health Services (AHS) and the Crown in Right of Alberta as represented by Adriana LaGrange in her capacity as Minister of Health, as defendants.
The Statement of Claims (SoC) by Marshall Smith and Athana Mentzelopopulos are allegations which have not yet been tested in Court.
According to Wikipedia.org:
In Canada, defamation refers to any communication that harms a person’s reputation in the eyes of the public. It is divided into two categories: libel, which involves written or published defamatory statements, and slander, which involves spoken defamatory statements.
To establish a defamation claim, the plaintiff must prove three key elements:
– The statement is defamatory, meaning it lowers the person’s reputation in the eyes of a reasonable individual.
– The statement refers to the plaintiff, meaning people who hear or see it recognize that it is about them.
– The statement was communicated to a third party, meaning it was shared beyond just the plaintiff.
Marshall Smith is alleging defamation by libel, not slander.
As part of Mentzelopoulos’s statement of claim for wrongful dismissal, there were several paragraphs in which Marshall Smith claims unfavourable characterizations of him published by The Globe and Mail reporter Carrie Tait. Marshall Smith served as Danielle Smith’s Chief of Staff from her swearing in October 2022 to 8 October 2024. (He had previously served as Chief of Staff in the Ministry of Mental Health and Addiction from 2019 to 2022 under the Kenney government.) Upon his ‘retirement’ he was planning to “pursue contract work and consulting on addiction care, potentially in other places like his native British Columbia.”
According to a social post on X on Smith’s departure, Danielle Smith said:
Without Marshall’s vision and knowledge this shift would not have been possible. Countless lives have been saved and improved thanks to his commitment and service to the people of Alberta, steering our governments response to the addiction crisis.
I look forward to continuing to work with Marshall on the Alberta recovery model for mental health and addictions and hope he has the opportunity to assist other governments across the country in building that model in their provinces. Doing so will save lives.
Marshall Smith left on the best of terms with Premier Smith and looked forward to a promising career in the private sector.
What is the cause of action?
The Statement of Claim runs 16 pages and was submitted by Phillip J. Prowse of the law firm Prowse Chowne LLP.
The claim is based on published material contained in Mentzelopoulos’s statement of claim and articles in The Globe and Mail. In these materials, there are statements by Mentzelopoulos about several interactions with the plaintiff Smith. In particular, the SoC focuses on the Tait article of 5 February 2025 entitled “Alberta ousted health services CEO amid probe into medical contracts, document alleges.”
Defamation claim against Mentzelopoulos
Paragraphs 7 through 15 deal with the interactions between the plaintiff and the defendant Mentzelopoulos in 2024. The claim states that the plaintiff and the then CEO of AHS had four conversations in the summer of 2024. The subject of the first call dealt with representations made to Smith by doctors representing the Alberta Surgical Group. Mentzelopoulos then emailed Smith saying the ASG was “overdelivering on arthroplasty (most expensive) and under-delivering on spine and non-artho” (para 8).
The second interaction came over the appointment of Jitinder Prasad who “was being selected to develop a procurement s secretariat with the Health ministry.” Apparently the Health Minister’s office conveyed this information to the Chief of Staff to the Premier. Smith had heard of Prasad “due to wide praise he had received for his handling of matters during the COVID 19 pandemic.” Why the Health ministers office conveyed this information is unclear.
In the conversation that took place on the appointment or pending appointment of Prasad, Smith is “uncertain” how the CEO of AHS and responsible for procurement function became aware of Prasad’s appointment. In Smith’s claim, he does admit he used the term being “his guy” when confirming Prasad’s appointment (para. 10). Smith also states there was “no professional or personal history” between himself and Prasad.
The next conversation dealt with Nate Pike, an employee of Alberta Health Services “who was publishing false and defamatory about (Marshall) Smith” on social media. Smith contacted Mentzelopoulos to register concerns that Pike might be publishing these “false and defamatory content” during working hours. Smith contacted Mentzelopoulos as a courtesy heads up on a potential “blowback” situation as he was launching a lawsuit against Nate Pike an employee of AHS- Emergency Medical Services (paras. 11-12). Here is a link to Pikes’s website The Breakdown.
This was followed by Smith communicating “at a casual meeting” with Mentzelopoulos that Sam Mraiche of MHCare was looking to commence a legal action against Pike for “making false and defamatory statements about Mraiche on the internet (para. 13). At this time, Smith also advised Mentzelopoulos that the Premier’s office was looking into the identity of who leaked information being published by “Hansard the Cat.” Smith described the meeting as a “friendly meeting and casual discussion between long time colleagues…. about each other’s workplace happenings” (paras. 14-15).
Paragraphs 29 to 45 are a recital of sections from Mentzelopoulos’s statement of claim and Reply to Statements of Defence. Smith’s version of the facts were recorded in paragraphs 7 through 15 which he states are true. By her actions, Mentzelopoulos “disparaged the character and reputation of Smith in the eyes of the public including, but not limited to, friends, family, colleagues, constituents, online followers, and other social media users” (para. 40). The Mentzelopoulos SoC posits, falsely, according to Smith’s claim, that Smith:
“threatened Mentzelopoulos (para. 40 n);”
“routinely made threats (para. 40 p);”
“sought to advance the interests of a private firm (para. 40 q);”
“engaged in illegal practices in his position as Chief of Staff (para. 40 t);”
is “corrupt (para. 40 y);”
is a “bully (para. 40 z);”
which taken individually and together “constitute malicious injurious falsehoods intended to harm Smith.”
Smith vs. Tait and The Globe and Mail (paras.16-25)
In this section of the lawsuit, the plaintiff cites the 5 February Globe article which referenced a 20 January 2025 (after the CEO firing had taken place) letter from Mentzelopoulos’s lawyer to the legal counsel of AHS which was labelled “Confidential and Without Prejudice.” The letter contained an offer to resolve the wrongful dismissal claim for the payment of money in exchange for a release and confidentiality agreement (para. 16).
Smith’s claim is primarily about The Globe republishing “false statements” which were from the contents of the lawyer’s letter. Paragraph 20 lists a number of the article’s statements defamatory to Smith. These statements alleged that Smith and various Alberta government officials interfered with negotiations on chartered surgical facilities on behalf of the Alberta Surgical Group (ASG); that Prasad “appeared” to be retained by chartered surgical facilities; that Mentzelopoulos was fired because of investigations she had initiated about AHS procurement practices; and the owner of MHCare provided luxury tickets to NHL games for cabinet ministers and members of Smith’s staff. The Claim states each of the statements were false and defamatory (para. 21).
The result of the article, according to Smith’s claim, was to create innuendo disparaging Smith’s character. In paragraph 22, the claim suggests these characterizations either “expressly or by innuendo” implied Smith abused his powers as Chief of Staff; “engaged in criminal activity;” “is a criminal;” “is corrupt;” or a “bully” (para. 22).
These claims have not been proven in court.
Updates from the Globe
Shortly after the defamation suit was filed, The Globe published an article by Tait, Tom Cardoso and Stephaine Chambers headlined “Former chief of staff to Alberta Premier lived in home owned by Sam Mraiche’s sister.” This was followed a few days later by a story from Tait and Alanna Smith about Alberta’s purchase of children’s pain medication based on a briefing document dated 5 December 2024 about the purchase order from MHCare Medical Corp.
Most recently, Mentzelopoulos has requested that the judge rule on her wrongful dismissal lawsuit against AHS and the Alberta government without going to trial -summary judgment. A future post will examine this development in light of more recent documents filed with the Court of King’s Bench and the Alberta Court of Appeal.
Claim against “John Doe”
John Doe “published” the lawyer’s letter “sometime between January 20, 2025 and February 6, 2025” according to Smith’s SoC. This letter “contains false statements” defamatory to Smith. According to the claim, John Doe “reasonably” foresaw that The Globe would republish these statements. John Doe is believed to be a former member of the AHS board (paras. 18-19).
This litigation and the Mentzelopoulos litigation have had limited visibility in news media as these cases grind through the justice system. However in the fall we can anticipate reports from the Government of Alberta’s own investigator, retired Manitoba justice Raymond Wayant who is scheduled to deliver an interim report in September 24 and with the final report by 15 October. It has been reported that Mentzelopoulos has still not been interviewed by Wayant. It is uncertain when the Auditor General will report. It is understood that there are 200,000 pages of documentation to wade through.
Related Posts
Mentzelopoulos: AHS, Government defence and plaintiff’s reply