Smith and any of the supposedly aggrieved parties she mentioned in her press release are free to sue the CBC and its reporters for defamation. The information uncovered would clearly be of significant benefit to the Alberta public. The release concluded: “All communications between the Premier, her staff, the Minister of Justice and Ministry of Justice public servants have been appropriate and made through the proper channels. They mean even less when they are conveyed in the form of an angry government press release. And unlike some news organizations, I doubt the CBC will have much trouble corroborating its sources’ claims.
