The Theatre North West Society is denying allegations of defamation brought against the organization by former artistic director Ted Price and general manager Anne Laughlin, contending the two are the "authors of their own misfortune."
The statement was made in a response, filed April 29 in B.C. Supreme Court in Vancouver, to a lawsuit Price and Lauglin launched against the organization in December 2015 and amended in March.
They claim Samantha MacDonald, who was the artistic producer while Price and Laughlin were in the process of resigning from their roles, made defamatory statements during a meeting with three board members." They also claim the board failed to give them an opportunity to defend themselves against MacDonald's statements.
The allegations are based on notes taken during the meeting, held in December 2013, slightly more than three years after MacDonald had taken on the job and about two weeks after she served notice of resignation.
The three board members - Deborah O'Leary, Richard King and Jovanka Djordjevich - were appointed to an "exit committee" and the meeting was held to hear MacDonald's concerns and to find out what it would take for her to reconsider her resignation. MacDonald left for good in July 2014.
In the response, TNW said the notes were taken in the "context of qualified privilege" and were to be kept confidential and not to be shared outside the board.
And if Price and Laughlin suffered any damage as a result, it was as a result of their decision to make public the notes and MacDonald's statements and "are therefore the authors of their own misfortune."
Further, Price and Laughlin's "reputations were already adversely affected by their history of behaviour, which was well known." They also declined to take up an offer to meet with the board to discuss MacDonald's concerns, according to the response.
MacDonald, meanwhile, stands by what she told the the three board members, saying that "the facts she conveyed to the exit committee and...captured in the interview notes were substantially true."
The filing includes a copy of the notes and a chronology of events during MacDonald's time at TNW, essentially outlining alleged efforts by Price and Laughlin to undermine and impede MacDonald.
Hired in September 2010, MacDonald submitted a letter of resignation in late November 2013.
According to the response, MacDonald had "great respect" for Price and Laughlin as artists and "held a high regard for their reputations."
It was out of this respect and regard that she "kept many of her concerns to herself and only agreed to share them with the exit committee when they asked her to give her reasons for wanting to resign her post and she was assured that her comments would be kept confidential."
A copy of the notes were forwarded to the remaining board members the day after the meeting, "stressing that they were confidential and not to be shared outside the board."
To the extent any TNW staff was aware of the specifics of MacDonald's complaints, that staff member was "intimately involved with the events giving rise to the complaint." And to the extent any member of the public was aware of MacDonald's complaints it was due to the actions of Price and Laughlin.
At TNW's August 2014 annual general meeting, Price announced he and Lauglin had been banned from all work at TNW "as a result of false allegations against them," according to the response.
Price went on to say the board refused them any opportunity to refute the allegations and "proffered documents that he said proved his allegations."
If anything, Price and Lauglin defamed TNW, MacDonald and the board members named in the lawsuit, such that there are grounds to support an award of special costs to the defendants, they say in the response.
Along with MacDonald, the Theatre North West Society as represented by its board of directors, Robin Dielissen, Allison Haley, John Ottery, O'Leary, King and Djordjevich, are named as defendants.
None of the allegations have yet been tested in court.
