National Post from Toronto, Ontario, Canada • 5

a NATIONAL POST, FRIDAY, APRIL 4, 2008 CANADA A5 Teenage car thief with more than 80 convictions sentenced to five years in prison A teenage car thief who has racked up more than 80 con- 'HE HAS A TALENT' with convictions last year for a string of victions over the past six years was sentenced yesterday to five years in prison after being raised to adult court. Gene putting public safety at risk. "He's a car Soldat, 18, shows "little hope" for rehabilitation and must tor Deann Sahulka. "He's proud of that. be locked away for the protection of the public, said Queen's that, and he can impress his friends Bench Justice Karen Simonsen.

Soldat has 82 prior convic- explanation he's ever given is that it is tions over the past six years, nearly all for stealing cars and recent crime spree took place when he DON HEALY REGINA LEADERSaskatchewan Premier Brad Wall, pictured above in Regina, and Conservative MP Tom Lukiwski, pictured below in Ottawa, apologized yesterday after they were shown making offensive comments at a party on a videotape made 17 years ago. Premier, MP apologize for comments Saskatchewan politicians made offensive remarks on tape in 1991 BY JAMES WOOD SASKATOON Saskatchewan Premier Brad Wall and a Tory MP apologized yesterday after they were shown making offensive comments including homophobic remarks by MP Tom Lukiwski at a party on a videotape made 17 years ago. The video shows Mr. Wall, now Premier of Saskatchewan, speaking in an exaggerated eastern European accent and mocking then-NDP leader Roy Romanow. Mr.

Wall told reporters yesterday he would personally apologize to Mr. Romanow for his "bad language" and "disrespectful tone." Mr. Romanow went on to become premier in the 1991 election. The video also shows Mr. Lukiwski, now a Conservative MP, insulting gays.

"I am truly, truly sorry," Mr. Lukiwski told reporters in Ottawa outside the House of Commons. "I'm ashamed for the comments. If I could take those comments back I They do not reflect the type of person that I am." The videotape shows Mr. Lukiwski, who was elected to the Commons in 2004, and Mr.

Wall at a party in 1991. Mr. Lukiwski, then an official in the Progressive Conservative provincial campaign, speaks directly to the camera at one point in response to a question from the camera operator. "There's A's and there's B's," he says. "The A's are guys like me, the B's are homosexual faggots with dirt under their fingernails that transmit diseases." The video also shows Mr.

Wall, then a young PC staffer, engaged in a mock interview with Kathy Young, now the Saskatchewan Party's executive director of communications. Apparently speaking as a voter from Preeceville, a rural community that has a large Ukrainian population, he talks about liking then-premier Grant Devine. "Roy Romanow got his head up his ass. I don't even know how he walks upright with his head so far up his ass," he said in a gravelly, car thefts. thief," said prosecu- a high-speed He has a talent for which Soldat with that.

The only vards, ran fun." Soldat's most lights and was 17 and ended traffic. It was capped off by police chase in drove over boulestop signs and red drove into oncoming Canwest. News Service Supreme Court to hear newspaper's libel appeal OTTAWA CITIZEN CASE BY DON BUTLER OTTAWA The Supreme Court of Canada has agreed to hear an appeal of an Ottawa Citizen libel case that could greatly expand legal protection for journalists who responsibly report stories in the public interest. Yesterday, the court granted the Ottawa Citizen and its corporate owner, Canwest Global Communications leave to appeal a decision 1 by the Ontario Court of Appeal in the case of former Ontario Provincial Police officer Danno Cusson. The outcome "will affect the work of journalists across the country," said Citizen lawyer Richard Dearden.

"This appeal will decide what protections will be given to media who responsibly publish stories that are in the public interest." The Citizen has argued the case raises significant issues about the balance between protecting reputation and freedom of the press. Ron Caza, Mr. Cusson's lawyer, agreed the stakes are high, saying "very serious consequences" will flow from the Supreme Court's finding. Last year, the Ontario Court of Appeal upheld a 2006 jury verdict that awarded Mr. Cusson $125,000 in damages for Citizen articles that raised questions about his conduct as a police officer in Ottawa and determining some "very im- in a New York City during the two weeks following the terrorist attacks.

At same time, the court created a new qualified privilege defence for stories dealing with matters of public interest, as long as the journalists who researched and wrote them did so responsibly. In effect, the appeal court said, the new defence shifts the law of defamation away from its rigid focus on protecting reputations to a freer and more open discussion of matters of public interest. Because it was created by an Ontario court, the new "responsible journalism public interest" defence only applies in this province. The Supreme Court could extend it to all journalists in Canada if it rules in favour of the Citizen, Mr. Dearden said.

Though the Ontario Court of Appeal created the new defence, it ruled it did not apply in Mr. Cusson's case because Citizen lawyers didn't argue it at the original trial. If the Supreme Court finds the new defence should have been available to the Citizen, it's possible the jury verdict in Mr. Cusson's case could be overturned, Mr. Dearden said.

Mr. Caza was disappointed the court had agreed to hear the Citizen appeal. "We were hoping for Mr. Cusson that, having been successful both at trial and at the Court of Appeal, he'd be able to close the door on this matter." That said, the court will be portant issues," Mr. Caza said.

One of them, he said, is to what extent the new defence would "have a negative impact, in fact a chilling effect, on individuals and their ability or willingness to protect their reputations." This will be the first time since the Charter of Rights came into force in 1982 that the Supreme Court will rule on the availability of the defence of qualified privilege to the media for publication to "the world at large." Traditionally, an occasion of qualified privilege exists when someone has an interest or duty legal, social or moral -to communicate information to another person, who has a corresponding interest or duty to receive it. Several Supreme Court decisions in the 1950s and 1960s denied the media that traditional qualified privilege defence for statements published to the public generally. However, since then, several lower court rulings have accepted the defence for media stories in certain circumstances. At the Cusson trial, presiding Judge Robert Maranger accepted the traditional qualified privilege defence for one of the stories complained of, but disallowed it for the others, saying there was no "compelling moral or social duty" to publish them. The Citizen appeal asks the Supreme Court to consider whether the judge erred in making that ruling.

Specifically, it asks the court whether the common law of defamation governing the availability of the traditional qualified privilege defence for media is i inconsistent with the Charter of Rights. Canwest News Service CHRIS WATTIE REUTERS accented voice. Mr. Wall said yesterday he didn't remember the evening but said he was doing an impression of a friend's accented uncle. "It's not a bad impersonation of a people, it's a bad impersonation of one individual," he said.

However, he said he unequivocally apologizes if anyone was offended. Mr. Wall said Mr. Lukiwski's comments were "unacceptable." He said he would distance himself from Mr. Lukiwski if he still held those views but said he would wait to hear the MP's explanation.

"I think we hear people, certainly then, we hear people maybe tell a joke that shouldn't be told or maybe make an offcolour remark," Mr. Wall said. "And this is obviously beyond being off-colour, the remarks that are there. And have I on every occasion heard someone do that, have I challenged them whether it was 26 or 42 as I am today? The answer would be no and I would expect that would probably be the same for most people. Should we be doing better on that count? Absolutely." The provincial NDP released the video.

Pat Atkinson, an NDP member of the provincial legislature, told a news conference yesterday her party found the videotape when it moved into the opposition offices after its loss in last fall's election. Ms. Atkinson called the comments "hateful." "I think I can say that it was disturbing. His comments were rather disturbing. And it made me sick," she said.

Ms. Atkinson noted that Mr. Lukiwski was elected in Regina-Lumsden-Lake Centre in 2004 to replace MP Larry Spencer, who had been kicked out of the then-Canadian Alliance caucus after making derogatory comments about gays in a newspaper interview. She said Prime Minister Stephen Harper has no choice but to strip Mr. Lukiwski of his duties as parliamentary secretary to the government House leader and kick him out of caucus.

Canteest News Service NP. Read a full transcript of the Brad Wall, Tom Lukiwski video on nationalpost.com/posted LEGAL NOTICE If you own or owned a high efficiency gas furnace, you could get benefits from a class action settlement. Includes Carrier, Bryant, Payne, and Day Night furnaces made and sold since January 1, 1989. A nationwide settlement has been reached in class HOW DO YOU ASK FOR BENEFITS? action lawsuits about whether Carrier Corporation negligently designed and manufactured and failed to You do not have to do anything to receive the disclose alleged defects in the secondary heat exchangers of enhanced warranty. However, to request a payment for a its high efficiency gas furnaces.

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