An Alberta judge has found reasonable and probable grounds to cite two podcasters for criminal contempt, describing their months-long campaign against former Alberta Health Services CEO Athana Mentzelopoulos as “baseless humiliation and demonization” aimed at pressuring her to abandon her lawsuit against the provincial government.
Judge's Ruling
Court of King’s Bench Justice Michael Lema issued his ruling early Friday following a hearing last Monday. The citations mean that the court has found sufficient grounds to have the podcasters answer the contempt allegations, though a future hearing will determine if contempt has been proven.
Lema ruled the content in a series of videos made by podcasters David Wallace and James Di Fiore amounted to reasonable and probable grounds that they had engaged in criminal contempt of court.
He wrote the commentary in those videos was not legitimate journalism, but appeared to be aimed at making Mentzelopoulos’s life “miserable and ultimately to sap her will to continue with her case.”
“On the evidence to date, it is baseless humiliation and demonization of a litigant in this court for no apparent purpose other than sapping her will to continue with her case,” he wrote, going on to describe Wallace and Di Fiore as “shameless.”
“Wallace and Di Fiore are master insulters, insinuators, and muckrakers,” he wrote. “I see only one reasonable inference on the evidence: this is deliberate interference with a litigation participant.”
He said the podcasters’ remarks went beyond views or opinion and instead amounted to a “sandblasting campaign.”
Restraining Order and Content Removal
Lema also approved a restraining order against the two as well as ordering that the content be taken down. It’s the second time Wallace and Di Fiore have been cited for contempt due to comments in the videos. They were previously cited in a parallel case where they are accused of trying to similarly intimidate ex-AHS board member Sandy Edmonstone, who is likely to be compelled to testify in Mentzelopoulos’s $1.7-million wrongful dismissal lawsuit.
Content of the Videos
The podcasters’ videos were posted to X and YouTube starting last summer and mentioned Mentzelopoulos more than 300 times, according to the ruling. They called her a “fabricator,” “liar,” and “criminal,” while describing her lawsuit as a “shakedown attempt.”
Some of their statements indicate Wallace had pursued her personally, including comments about talking to her neighbours, visiting property she owned in another province, and stating that he was “coming for (her).” In one video, Wallace also offered a $100,000 bounty for information leading to criminal charges against Mentzelopoulos. In another video, he had said he was being indemnified for his work.
The court heard on Monday that many of the videos remained publicly available as of last month, despite a prior order to remove the content.
Podcasters' Defense
In court filings, the podcasters argued the videos amounted to expressions of opinion and did not interfere with the administration of justice. However, the judge disagreed, finding that the campaign was designed to pressure Mentzelopoulos and undermine her legal case.
