Ontario court dismisses Michael Chan’s 2015 lawsuit against the Globe and Mail

Chan was suing the newspaper over a 2015 story alleging CSIS warned the Ontario government over his alleged ties to Chinese diplomats.

An Ontario court has tossed out Michael Chan’s nearly decade-old libel lawsuit against the Globe and Mail over reporting on the former provincial cabinet minister’s alleged ties to Chinese diplomats.

The Ontario Superior Court dismissed Chan’s case in August, Global News has learned, after Chan failed to submit documentation in a timely matter.

The case has dragged on since 2015, when the Globe reported the Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS) was concerned about what it believed were Chan’s “unusually close” ties to the Chinese consulate in Toronto and worried he was under the influence of Beijing. Chan said at the time the allegations were unfounded.

Globe and Mail editor-in-chief, David Walmsley, and the publisher at the time, Phillip Crawley, were named in the suit, as was reporter Craig Offman. Offman is now Investigations editor with Global News, but did not edit this story.

Neither Walmsley nor Andrew Saunders, the Globe’s president and chief executive officer, responded to Global News’ requests for comment.

Chan, who is now deputy mayor of Markham, Ont., also did not return requests for comment last week.

The initial Globe and Mail story reported CSIS believed Chan had developed a “too close” relationship with the Chinese consulate in Toronto, and worried the then-minister was susceptible to Beijing’s influence.

The issue of foreign interference in Canadian politics is now garnering widespread media attention, but in 2015 the story made significant waves. The Globe’s reporting was condemned by Liberal partisans — many of whom went on to run or work for Justin Trudeau’s federal Liberals — and met with skepticism within the broader Canadian media.