Bob Verdun, the former publisher of the Elmira Independent has been ordered to pay $650,000 as a result of a defamation suit.
In 2004, Verdun alleged Robert Astley’s involvement with the Clarica Life Insurance Company and its role in the development of a controversial recreation complex made him unfit for the board of BMO Financial Services.
After denouncing Astley at shareholders’ meetings and in emails to BMO executives — among other places — things turned about as bad as they could for Verdun, the recipient of a prestigious Michener Award for meritorious public service journalism in 1990.
The jury found Verdun acted with malice.
Ouch! To borrow from Abraham Lincoln, concerning whatever statements I make on the CorpGov.net blog, I now adopt the following policy:
With malice toward none, with charity for all, let us strive to finish the work we are in, … to do all which may achieve and cherish a just and lasting form of corporate governance.
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