CTV Settles Whistler Suit With Olympic Star snowboarder claims TV series defamed him... April 25th 2008 12:14pm | Posted by: Michael Stevens, HNR Senior Editor Olympic gold medal-winning snowboarder Ross Rebagliati has settled a lawsuit with CTV's Whistler TV series, that he had accused of defaming him. The Canadian snowboarder reached the out-of-court settlement with CTV Television network and producers of the series. Rebagliati said he was defamed by a character in the syndicated series named 'Beck MacKaye', who was portrayed as a former Olympic snowboarder and resident at the Whistler, British Columbia, ski resort whose death was linked to alcoholism, womanizing and blackmail. Rebagliati, who lived in Whistler when he won the gold medal at the Nagano Winter Games in 1998, alleged the 'reprehensible' character was so similar physically and in sports history that people thought the character was modeled on him, or created by him. "I am glad I was able to get my message out, as I have worked very hard on my image since returning home from Nagano," Rebagliati said. Rebagliati's gold medal in the 1998 Games, the first awarded in an Olympics for snowboarding, was initially stripped when he tested positive for marijuana. It was then returned to him because the drug was not then a banned Olympic substance. Rebagliati denied smoking marijuana, but said he may have inhaled it as second hand smoke at a pre-Olympics party in Whistler. Whistler will host Alpine events during the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics... *** IN THE SUPREME COURT OF BRITISH COLUMBIA BETWEEN: ROSS REBAGLIATI PLAINTIFF AND: CTV TELEVISION INC., BOARDWATCH PRODUCTIONS INC. AND KELLY SENECAL DEFENDANTS STATEMENT OF CLAIM ROSS REBAGLIATI 5. In 1998 the Plaintiff won the first Olympic Gold Medal awarded for the Snowboarding at the winter Olympics held at Nagano Japan. 6. The Plaintiff is the only Canadian to have won an Olympic Gold Medal in Snowboarding. 7. The Plaintiff has been a resident of the Village of Whistler since 1990. The Village of Whistler has a permanent population of approximately 7000. 8. As result of his Olympic Gold Medal win in the sport of Snowboarding the Plaintiff became one of Canada’s best known and most recognized sports celebrities. 9. To honor the Plaintiff’s Olympic win the Village of Whistler amongst other honors renamed a civic park, Ross Rebagliati Park. 10. To further honor the Plaintiff’s Olympic win a popular Whistler-Blackcomb snowboarding run Gandy Dancer was renamed Ross’ Gold. 11. The Vancouver/Whistler Olympic Committee which was awarded the right to hold the 2010 Olympics on July 2, 2003. Ross Rebagliati was an active supporter of the Whistler Olympic bid. 12. On April 28, 2005 the Plaintiff was inducted into the BC Sports Hall of Fame. 13. In the spring of 2005 the Plaintiff announced that he had resumed training. He is an active competitor in International snowboarding events and is training for the 2010 Olympics which are being held in his hometown of Whistler. 14. Ross Rebaglaiti’s television mentions and appearances include BCTV, Canada Am National News, CBC, CityTV, Conan O’Brien, CTV National News, Entertainment Tonight Canada, ETalk Daily, Global TV, Late Night Show with David Letterman, MTV, NBC, Robin Williams Live, Saturday Night Live and the Tonight Show with Jay Leno. 15. In 2002 and 2006 the Plaintiff appeared on CBC television during the broadcasts of the Olympic Winter Games, providing colour commentary on Olympic events, including snowboarding. 16. Mr. Rebagliati has blond hair and blue eyes and is approximately 5’ 10” tall. 17. Ross Rebagliati is an active supporter of charities including the Make-a-Wish Foundation, Big Brothers of Greater Vancouver and Kids Help Phone. CTV 18. In the fall of 2004 Bell Canada, a subsidiary of BCE Inc., paid $200,000,000.00 for the telecommunications sponsorship rights for the 2006 to 2012 Olympics. 19. CTV is owned by Bell Globemedia Inc. which is also a subsidiary of BCE Inc. 20. On February 9, 2005 the International Olympic Committee (“IOC”) awarded the right to broadcast the 2010 Olympic Winter Games in Whistler to CTV who paid a record $90,000,000.00 for the broadcast rights. 21. After being awarded the rights to broadcast the 2010 Winter Olympics, CTV approached Kelly Senecal in 2005 and asked him to create a dramatic television series based in Whistler to be broadcast commencing 2006. 22. In November of 2005 CTV announced that filming of the television drama series “Whistler” had commenced and that the initial 13 episodes were backed by the biggest production budget ever for a CTV drama series. Filming for the first season concluded in April 2006. 23. The first season of “Whistler” premiered on CTV June 25, 2006 and on the N cable network in the United States on June 30, 2006. 24. When “Whistler” premiered CTV announced that the series had already been greenlighted for a second season. 25. On June 25, 2006 CTV commenced broadcasting and distributing “Whistler” over the internet. To date seven of the thirteen first season episodes of the series have been broadcast on the CTV television network, Sunday evenings at 10 p.m. All seven episodes are also available for on demand viewing over the internet at the CTV website. 26. CTV launched “Whistler” with an extensive multiplatform promotional campaign which included exhaustive on air and off air promotion and publicity featuring a Gold Medal Olympic Snowboarding Champion who was said to reside in Whistler and who looked like Ross Rebagliati. 27. The series is supported online at www.ctv.ca by multiple online components including on-demand broadband broadcasts of each episode, and original webisodes along with links to two separate websites promoting the series www.whistlertheseries.com and www.afterthedrop.com. The episodes and webispodes broadcast on these websites also feature a Gold Medal Snowboarding Champion who is said to reside in Whistler who looked like Ross Rebagliati. BOARDWALK 28. Whistler is a co-production of Vancouver-based Boardwalk Productions and Toronto-based Blueprint Entertainment in association with CTV. 29. The Executive Producers responsible for Whistler for Boardwalk Productions are Janet Yorke and Sam Feldman. 30. Funding for the series was made available through the Canadian Television Fund created by the Government of Canada and the Canadian Cable Industry, CTF: Licence Fee Program, Telefilm Canada: Equity Investment Program, Canadian Film or Video tax Credit, the Province of British Columbia Film Incentive BC. The Independent Production Fund was also involved in the production. KELLY SENECAL 31. “Whistler” was created by Executive Producer and Show Runner Kelly Senecal. 32. Kelly Senecal also wrote the script for the first two episodes of “Whistler”. “WHISTLER” 33. The central character in the series “Whistler” is Beck MacKaye, an Olympic Gold Medalist in Snowboarding who was a resident of Whistler. 34. Beck MacKaye is played by David Paetkau who is approximately 5’ 10” tall, has blond hair and blue eyes. Mr. Paetkau looks like Ross Rebagliati. 35. Beck MacKaye is killed in the first episode of “Whistler” but remains a central character in the series with a recurring role as a ghost and in flashbacks. 36. In each episode of “Whistler” Beck MacKaye is portrayed as an unsavory and offensive person, who is an alcoholic, a blackmailer and a drunken hit and run driver whose actions have resulted in a young woman being confined to a wheelchair. MISAPPROPRIATION OF PERSONALITY 37. Ross Rebagliati did not consent to the appropriation of his personality, image and reputation by CTV, Boardwalk or Kelly Senecal in the series “Whistler”. 38. Ross Rebagliati does not endorse and did not consent to the appropriation of his personality, image and reputation to promote “Whistler” by CTV, Boardwalk and Kelly Senecal. 39. Ross Rebagliati did not consent to the display of his image, personality or reputation by CTV, Boardwalk or Kelly Senecal in such a manner as to suggest that he endorses the series “Whistler”. 40. The use of Ross Rebagliati’s image, personality, and reputation for the purposes of promoting the series “Whistler” amounts to an unlawful appropriation of his personality by CTV, Boardwalk and Kelly Senecal and is an infringement of the exclusive proprietary right of the Plaintiff to market his personality, image, name and reputation. 41. Ross Rebagliati has suffered and continues to suffer damages as a result of the Defendant’s unlawful conduct by reason of the demeaning of his image or personality by suggesting that he would endorse the characterization of the Village of Whistler in general and the character Beck MacKaye in particular in the series “Whistler”. 42. The conduct of CTV, Boardwalk and Kelly Senecal in appropriating his personality amounts to a high-handed and callous disregard of the Plaintiff’s rights, entitling him to an award of exemplary and punitive damages. BREACH OF PRIVACY 43. The use of the Plaintiff’s personality and likeness without his consent in the promotion and broadcasting of “Whistler” was a substantial and unreasonable violation of and invasion of his right of privacy at common law committed willfully and without claim of right by CTV, Boardwalk and Kelly Senecal. 44. The use of the Plaintiff’s personality and likeness without his consent in the promotion and broadcasting of “Whistler” was a substantial and unreasonable violation of and invasion of his right of privacy, actionable without proof of damages, pursuant to the provisions of the Privacy Act RSBC 1996 c. 373 committed willfully and without claim of right by CTV, Boardwalk and Kelly Senecal. 45. Ross Rebagliati has suffered and continues to suffer damages by reason of the Defendants unlawful conduct in violating his right to privacy. 46. The conduct of CTV, Boardwalk and Kelly Senecal in violating his privacy and appropriating his personality amounts to a high-handed and callous disregard of the Plaintiff’s right to privacy, common law and statutory, entitling him to an award of exemplary and punitive damages. DEFAMATION 47. Members of the public who viewed broadcasts of the series “Whistler” would understand that the character Beck MacKaye was intended to refer to the Plaintiff and that the words and actions of the character Beck MacKaye would be associated by the public with the Plaintiff. 48. In each episode of the series “Whistler” broadcast over the CTV network and over the internet, the conduct of the character Beck MacKaye disparaged the character and reputation of the Plaintiff Ross Rebagliati in the community. These defendants knew or ought to have known that the plain meaning of the words and actions of the character Beck MacKaye were defamatory and libelous of the Plaintiff and that the words were untrue and did not represent the real character of the Plaintiff. 49. The creator Kelly Senecal was responsible for the writing the words and spoken by the character Beck MacKaye and developing the conduct of the character Beck MacKay., Boardwalk Production and CTV participated in the broadcast of the defamatory words and actions. All Defendants are jointly and severally liable and responsible to the Plaintiff for damages as a result of the broadcast of the defamatory words and actions. 50. As a result of the broadcast of the series “Whistler” commencing June 25, 2006, the Plaintiff has been greatly injured in his character, credit and reputation in the community and has suffered great distress, embarrassment, loss of reputation and financial loss. 51. The Defendants acted with willful disregard to the injury to the Plaintiff. The conduct of the Defendants entitles the Plaintiff to aggravated,exemplary and punitive damages. 52. The Plaintiff therefore claims: (a) an Order declaring CTV, Boardwalk and Kelly Senecal (the “Defendants”) or either one of them have appropriated the personality of Ross Rebagliati for their commercial benefit without his consent by advertising and broadcasting the television show Whistler and distributing the episodes over the Internet; (b) an Order declaring the Defendants or either one of them have breached the privacy rights of Ross Rebagliati by advertising and broadcasting the television show Whistler and distributing the episodes over the Internet; (c) an order declaring that the Defendants or either one of them have libeled the Defendant by broadcasting the Television show Whistler and distributing the episodes over the Internet; (d) damages for appropriation of personality or an accounting of the Defendant’s profits, as the Plaintiff may elect after discovery thereon; (e) damages for breach of privacy or an accounting of the Defendant’s profits, as the Plaintiffs may elect after discovery thereon; (f) damages for libel; (g) exemplary damages; (h) punitive damages; (i) special costs; (j) pre and post-judgment interest; (k) such further and other relief as this Court may Order Place of trial: Vancouver, British Columbia Source: CBC In: Features |Visit the HNR Forums

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