Tims serves up lawsuit
Radio host’s comments about Afghan outlet at centre
By SAM PAZZANO, SUN MEDIA
Tim Hortons has launched a double-double of a lawsuit, seeking $105 million in damages from two of Canada’s largest media companies and a popular Toronto radio talk-show host.
The coffee chain giant filed a defamation suit against Standard Radio and CFRB talk-show host Bill Carroll, along with CanWest, which owns Global TV, alleging they falsely stated that Ottawa footed the bill for a franchise serving Canadian soldiers in Afghanistan.
“The false and defamatory statements respecting the establishment of a Tim Hortons franchise injured the plaintiffs’ trade name, brand and commercial reputation,” according to documents filed with the Superior Court of Ontario.
Tim Hortons Inc. is seeking $35 million in general and punitive damages each from CanWest, Standard Radio (which owns Toronto station CFRB) and Carroll, for falsely stating that the company received a multimillion-dollar subsidy from Ottawa in support of the Kandahar outlet.
In his Nov. 1, 2006, radio broadcast, Carroll said: “If Tim Hortons wants to have a franchise in Afghanistan, it’s a pretty good public relations gesture … Then let them pay for it.”
In a Global TV commentary, he said: “Tim Hortons has been sliding by on the great publicity about the Kandahar franchise all these months and then Global uncovers the dirty little secret. You and I, the taxpayers, are picking up $4 or 5 million dollars a year so that they can look good to the public … Shame on Tim Hortons.”
Media reports that alleged the company was pocketing $2 to $5 million in annual operating subsidies were “false and defamatory,” states the claim by Tim Hortons.
It is alleged that the broadcasts and Internet publications damaged the company’s reputation by falsely suggesting it “was motivated by a desire for favourable publicity to establish the Afghanistan outlet” and “entered into an improper or immoral arrangement with the Government of Canada for financial assistance to operate the outlet and use Canadian soldiers to promote its brand.”
Tim Hortons also alleges that the reports wrongly stated that it “misled the Canadian public to believe the Afghanistan outlet was established and operated without any financial contribution from the Government of Canada.”
Standard Radio has filed a notice of intent to defend the lawsuit.
Deb Hutton, a spokesman for CanWest, said the matter has been referred to lawyers.
None of the allegations have been proven in court.
http://www.torontosun.com/News/TorontoAndGTA/2007/03/02/3685653-sun.html
