Former B.C. trustee must pay $45K for 'striptease artist' remark

A Chilliwack, B.C., school board trustee says she's relieved to have won her defamation case against former trustee Barry Neufeld after he called her a "striptease artist."

The comments came during the campaigning period for the 2022 school board elections, in which longtime trustee Neufeld ran for re-election but lost.

Neufeld is known for his controversial statements about transgender identity and COVID-19, and is separately facing a human rights complaint related to past statements about transgender youth.

Carin Bondar, a biologist, educator and TV presenter, brought the lawsuit against Neufeld shortly after his comments in September 2022. She was later re-elected to the school board after that campaign.

"It's so much sweet vindication," Bondar said of her win in an interview with CBC News.

The ruling, posted on April 12, instructs Neufeld to pay Bondar a total of $45,000 for defaming her, with a judge finding that he falsely equated her to a striptease artist in an attempt to discredit her.

Comments came after educational videos 

During the campaign period, Neufeld referred to Bondar as a "striptease artist" during a video interview with the conservative Christian organization Action4Canada.

Bondar has an active social media presence that is focused on science education, and she has appeared in a few educational videos that she characterizes as "sex-positive", and of which she is proud.

This includes a parody video of Miley Cyrus' Wrecking Ball in 2014, in which she changed the lyrics to talk about evolution and natural selection.

The majority of the YouTube video features Bondar singing and clothed, but she briefly appears naked from behind.

Bondar also starred in Wild Sex, an educational video series about animal reproduction released in 2012 and 2013.

"It's an excellent series that launched my career," she told CBC News. 

"It was bold, but it certainly wasn't pornography and it wasn't stripping," she added. "My opponent took great issue with this series, that for a decade, had been globally acclaimed."

Following Neufeld's comments, Bondar announced in October 2022 she would be suing Neufeld for defamation of character.

Then, according to the ruling, in February 2023, Neufeld distributed a newsletter to about 800 people in which he asked for financial support to deal with the lawsuit.

Supreme Court Justice Michael Stephens found that the newsletter included screenshots of Bondar with quotes from the videos she was featured in. Among them was a screenshot of Bondar, nude on the wrecking ball, along with a caption reading, "I am NOT a strip tease artist!"

Bondar told CBC News that she doesn't think that there's anything wrong with striptease artistry. However, she says she felt that Neufeld had characterized her incorrectly.

"It just felt so ridiculous that someone could completely mispurpose my work and create a new identity for me," she said. "It just seems so awful, it seems so wrong."

According to the ruling, Neufeld denied the allegation that his comment was defamatory "either expressly or by innuendo."

The former trustee made the argument that he had "qualified privilege" in making the comments — a defence that asserts that he had a legal or moral interest or duty to express his views, and the community had an interest in receiving that information.

But Justice Stephens assessed the situation differently, ruling that "the words 'that striptease artist,' would tend to injure and lower the reputation of the person to whom it refers."

Striptease artistry cast in negative light

The judge noted that Neufeld has, thus far, refused to apologize or retract his comment.

In his judgment, Stephens says that Neufeld's comment had "genuinely threatened" Bondar's reputation.

"Unfortunately, there is a widely held societal view that striptease artistry is dishonourable or shameful, and particularly that it is inappropriate of a candidate for public office and a school trustee," the ruling reads.

"There is also a widely held societal view ... that women should not behave in a sexually liberated manner in public, and that women who do so do not have integrity and are not suitable for public office."

CBC News reached out to Neufeld and his lawyer for an interview, but did not receive a response in time for publication.