MICHAEL TUTTON

HALIFAX - The Halifax fire department's two top officials have filed a defamation lawsuit against seven people, including two firefighters, over comments that were made anonymously on a local weekly newspaper's website.

Fire Chief Bill Mosher and Deputy Chief Stephen Thurber say in court documents filed Thursday in the Supreme Court of Nova Scotia that the comments made on the website of The Coast are libellous and they are seeking unspecified damages.

The comments came after a series of articles about the fire department, including an article about black firefighters filing a human rights complaint against the department.

There are no allegations of libel against The Coast itself, and the newspaper is not named in the lawsuit.

The court documents say two of the defendants are current employees of the department and two are former employees. The backgrounds of three other people are not given.

The statement of claim contains allegations that have not been proven in court. No statements of defence have been filed.

The fire chief and deputy chief went through two court proceedings in an effort to obtain the names of people who wrote the online comments in March of this year and in April 2009.

"The plaintiffs say that the comments posted on the website by the defendants using the user names ... included defamatory statements which have caused damage to their professional and business reputations and to their standing in the community," the lawsuit alleges.

The comments criticize the chief and deputy for their leadership abilities, suggest they were unprofessional in handling personnel and claim they should be removed from their jobs.

Blair Cromwell, a black firefighter who has launched a human rights complaint against the fire department, confirmed in a telephone interview that he had sent one of the emails contained in the lawsuit.

The email he sent included a derogatory description of the deputy fire chief and alleges unfair treatment of black members of the department who were recruited through affirmative action programs.

The firefighter said he hadn't been approached to see if he would apologize for his comments and he intends to respond publicly to the allegations after he's read the document.

"I don't think I owe anyone an apology. ... If my name is going to be named in a lawsuit, I'm going to be holding a news conference," he said from Florida.

"There's a long history of stuff here."

Cromwell argued that the lawsuit could be aimed at silencing his persistent criticisms of the department.

"This has everything to do with a strategic lawsuit. It's a strategic lawsuit aimed at preventing public participation. They want to shut people up. That's my feeling," he said.

The other firefighter named in the lawsuit is identified as an investigator employed in the fire prevention division. He could not be reached for comment.

Donald Snider, a former fire captain who retired 13 years ago, is named in the lawsuit and confirmed he had made the online comment attributed to him in the lawsuit.

He said he's not sure yet what actions he will take.

Another former firefighter could not be reached for comment and a Halifax-area woman named in the lawsuit also couldn't be reached.

Armando and Betty Raymond of Bear River, N.S., are named in the lawsuit. But when reached on the telephone, Betty Raymond said she never wrote any emails about the fire chiefs and she said her husband died five years ago.

The human rights complaint filed by Cromwell and a group of other black firefighters in June 2008 alleges that the Halifax Regional Fire and Emergency Service discriminated against its black employees for years.

Documents filed with the commission allege specific examples of racism that firefighters faced on the job, including the publication in January 2006 of a newsletter that contained comments about the recruiting of black and female firefighters.

The human rights complaint also says there was a plan to keep firefighters from minority groups at urban core stations where they would be more visible to the public, but they did not in fact obtain these positions.

The documents say that on another occasion in 2005, a poster about handwashing in the restroom at a fire station in Middle Sackville was defaced with a racial slur.

A spokesman for the fire department said the complaint hasn't been resolved yet.

Mosher has said that many of the allegations in the human rights case don't accurately represent what has happened in the department in its efforts to eliminate racism.

Mosher and Thurber weren't available for comment on Thursday. A city spokeswoman also declined comment.

Paul Meldrum, a spokesman for the fire department, said he's not aware of any disciplinary measures being taken against the two firefighters named in the lawsuit.

"I don't expect we'll have information for the public regarding our personnel," he said.

He said allegations of racism in the fire department shouldn't be confused with the lawsuit or be taken as an indicator that there is a racism issue.

"Some of our firefighters voiced concerns about treatment of some members in the fire department," he said. "Our chief took prompt and immediate action, investigated the complaints and implemented corrective measures."

Meldrum said the lawsuit is a "separate matter (from the human rights case) ... they're not directly related."

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