Former senator Ed Lawson has won a libel lawsuit against Vancouver Sun business columnist David Baines.
B.C. Supreme Court Justice Robert Sewell, in a ruling Friday, awarded Lawson $30,000 in general damages.
The legal action stemmed from an article written by Baines and published on March 12, 2008, which was about events that happened in the 1980s.
Lawson was seeking $100,000 in general damages and up to $50,000 in aggravated damages, claiming Baines showed malice in writing the column.
Lawson's lawyer, Roger McConchie, had argued that Baines had artfully crafted his article to imply that Lawson, the former Canadian head of the Teamsters union, was corrupt.
Defence lawyer Robert Anderson argued at trial that the defendants had proved the truth or substantial truth of the alleged defamatory words.
Justice Sewell concluded that while Baines was "an honest and forthright witness," Lawson "established that the words used in the column and complained of in this lawsuit were defamatory."
The judge found no evidence of malice on the part of Baines, the newspaper's senior editors, or the parent company at the time, Canwest Publishing Inc.
The judge also found there was no evidence that Baines acted recklessly or demonstrated any reckless disregard for the truth in researching or writing the column.