Dr. Frans Leenen's battle with the CBC is finally over. In February the Supreme Court of Canada denied the broadcaster leave to appeal a lower-court ruling awarding Leenen almost $2.5 million in libel damages, costs and interest, the most in Canadian history (see CMAJ 2000;162[12]:1735-6). When the case was launched in 1996, Leenen had been willing to settle it for $10 000 and an apology.
It centred on the depiction of Leenen, director of the Hypertension Unit at the University of Ottawa Heart Institute, on an investigative program, the fifth estate. It dealt with the safety of a calcium-channel blocker, nifedipine, and Leenen's association with it. In the original 2000 ruling, the judge wrote: “In order to portray [Leenen] in the role of the ‘bad guy’ and in order to disparage his views, the CBC took an eminent research scientist, whom they knew to be a person of high integrity and reputation, and presented him as a devious, dishonest, bumbling fool in order to advance the story line.”
Leenen is glad the case is finally over. “I will now be able to get on with my life and put this sorry chapter behind me,” he said. “I'll leave it to others in the media, in academia, in law — and perhaps in government — to deal with what I believe should be a crisis of conscience for the CBC and the fifth estate.” — Patrick Sullivan, CMAJ