Latest news with #parliamentaryprivilege
News.com.au
a day ago
- Politics
- News.com.au
Court rejects parliamentary privilege claim in Walter Sofronoff's bid to overturn corruption findings
Claims parliamentary privilege would prevent a report that found the head of an inquiry into the prosecution of Bruce Lehrmann engaged in 'serious corrupt conduct' from being tendered in court have been rejected by a court. Former Queensland judge Walter Sofronoff KC led the 2023 board of inquiry into Mr Lehrmann's prosecution. An investigation into Mr Sofronoff's conduct during that inquiry, in particular his decision to send a copy of the board's report to two journalists from the ABC and The Australian prior to its official release by the ACT government, was launched by the ACT Integrity Commission. The commission in March found Mr Sofronoff had engaged in 'serious corrupt conduct'; however, he is seeking to have the commission's Operation Juno report overturned in the Federal Court. Lawyers for the Speaker of the ACT Legislative Assembly in May submitted the proceedings should be dismissed over claims the report was covered by parliamentary privilege, meaning it couldn't be tendered in court. Therefore, the retired judge couldn't seek judicial review. Justice Wendy Abraham said she allowed the Speaker to make the submission but ultimately dismissed it on Wednesday morning during a brief case management hearing in the Federal Court. 'I am not satisfied that the conduct of the proceedings on the material on which the applicant seeks to rely involves an infringement of Section 16 of the Parliamentary Privilege Act,' Justice Abraham told the court. 'I'll provide reasons for that in my final judgment.' The matter is scheduled for a final hearing on July 21 and 22. Documents filed by his legal team claim that Mr Sofronoff was given the ability to do 'whatever (he) considers necessary or convenient for the fair and prompt conduct of the inquiry' as head of the inquiry, and he considered it necessary or convenient to engage with journalists 'for the fair and prompt conduct of the inquiry'. The documents also claim Mr Sofronoff's actions were 'incapable of amounting to corrupt conduct' and the findings were 'seriously illogical, irrational and/or unreasonable'. The Federal Court has found that Mr Lehrmann raped Ms Higgins on the civil standard of the balance of probabilities. A criminal trial was aborted due to juror misconduct and a charge against him was dropped. Mr Lehrmann has always denied the allegation and is appealing the Federal Court's finding.
CTV News
29-05-2025
- Business
- CTV News
B.C. gravel truckers' union suing Conservative MLA over alleged defamation
Langley-Abbotsford MLA Harman Bhangu is seen in this photo from the Legislative Assembly of B.C. website. ( A union that represents gravel truck drivers in B.C. is suing one of its members – Langley-Abbotsford MLA Harman Bhangu – over comments he made on the floor of the legislature and reposted on his social media accounts. In a notice of civil claim filed in Vancouver on Monday, Teamsters Local 213 alleges that a speech Bhangu gave on the house floor May 8 – during which he said, among other things, that the union is engaged in 'blatant corruption and systemic nepotism' – was defamatory. Comments made on the floor of a provincial legislature are protected by 'parliamentary privilege,' meaning they cannot be the subject of a defamation lawsuit. The union argues that Bhangu's publication of videos of his speech on multiple social media platforms, as well as the comments he made in writing in those posts, give rise to legitimate defamation claims. 'The allegations made by Mr. Bhangu are false, malicious and defamatory,' said Tony Santavenere, the union's business manager and secretary-treasurer, in a brief statement to CTV News about the lawsuit. 'Those comments have caused damage to our organization's character and reputation. We are confident that legal proceedings will affirm our position.' Bhangu has not filed a response to the union's claim in court, nor has he responded to requests for comment from CTV News. The allegations against him have not been proven. Bhangu's allegedly defamatory comments centre around the union's dispatching practices for construction projects that are subject to the Community Benefits Agreement. Examples of such projects, according to the union's lawsuit, include the Pattullo Bridge replacement and Vancouver's Broadway SkyTrain extension. In its lawsuit, the union says the CBA 'delineates clear rules for direct contractor hiring of owner operators by contractors, as well as the dispatch of owner operators by the plaintiff.' 'If trucks are required beyond the contractors' employee complement, then the employers on CBA projects must submit a dispatch request to the union,' the document reads. 'To fill the dispatch request, the plaintiff will then call through their availability list of owner operator members. Once that list is exhausted, the plaintiff will call a list of individual owner operators who themselves have a collective agreement with the plaintiff called the material supply agreement (the 'Material Supply List'). The owner operators on the Material Supply List act as employers in their own right and possess additional trucks with hired drivers. Once the Material Supply List is exhausted, the union then calls brokers to fill the dispatch request.' In his speech in the house, which is reproduced in the lawsuit, Bhangu alleged that the union is not following this procedure, and that it is engaged in corruption and nepotism instead. 'What has happened is that they've created their own internal dispatch system where they pick and choose,' he said, according to the court document. 'There are people who literally got their memberships a couple of months ago, and they're going out before members who've been there for 20, 30 years.' He later added that 'it always seems to be that a certain select few brokers are the ones who get the call-outs,' and noted that Amneet Sekhon, a business agent for the union, is the son of Pardaman 'Paul' Sekhon, who owns a company that acts as a broker for larger contractors. In addition to alleging that Bhangu's claims are 'false, malicious and defamatory,' the union's lawsuit claims that Bhangu has made such allegations about the union on his social media accounts 'on several occasions' since 2019. No other posts beyond the ones containing video of his speech are cited in the notice of civil claim. The lawsuit alleges that Bhangu's comments have 'greatly injured' the union's reputation, and seeks general, aggravated, specific and punitive damages, as well as special costs and an injunction prohibiting Bhangu and 'his agents, servants or otherwise from further posting or publishing the alleged or any similar libel.'
