Kevin J. Johnston to pay $650K for defaming, harassing AHS inspector

'Mr. Johnston is unrepentant, and I have no confidence that the damages award will function as any sort of disincentive to him continuing to defame and harass Ms. Nunn.'

A right wing social media personality and failed Calgary mayoral candidate defamed and harassed an Alberta Health Services public health inspector, an Alberta justice has decided.

Now, Kevin J. Johnston faces having to pay $650,000 in damages to public health inspector Sarah Nunn and a restraining order from AHS is now permanent, with some changes.

The lawsuit brought by Nunn and the provincial health-care provider stem back to Johnston’s repeated threats against health inspectors.

The would-be mayor of Calgary and Mississauga was arrested multiple times for breaking pandemic-related public health orders and a temporary restraining order granted to AHS.

In a decision dated April 12, Justice Colin Feasby found that the combination of Johnston’s online broadcasts, blog posts and comments in the media that were “published and clearly referred to” Nunn were defamatory.

“On several occasions, Mr. Johnston engaged in rants on his show about Ms. Nunn. His rants about Ms. Nunn, were accompanied by pictures of Ms. Nunn and her family that he acquired from her unlocked social media accounts,” Feasby wrote.

“Let me say clearly that Mr. Johnston’s statements about Ms. Nunn are both untrue and unfair. The pictures that Mr. Johnston harvested from her social media depict a person enjoying her life with her husband, family, and friends. Nothing about the photos provides even a shred of support for the scorn heaped on Ms. Nunn by Mr. Johnston.”

The defamation suit was served to Johnston in June 2021 while he was in the Calgary Remand Centre, where he was being held for violating the previous restraining order filed by AHS.