Justin Trudeau’s Deputy Government House Leader, Mark Gerretsen, made a grave error when he falsely accused our Senior Editor, Kat Kanada, of being a Russian agent.

It was a baseless and reckless lie designed to silence her. But we fought back — and won.

Thanks to the support of our readers, we hired a team of lawyers and defended Kat against Gerretsen’s smear campaign. 

As a result, he was forced to publicly apologize and donate to a charity of Kat’s choosing. He even unblocked Kat on Twitter, a requirement we stood strong on.

But the damage doesn’t disappear with an apology.

Gerretsen used his position of power to try and drag Kat in front of a parliamentary committee, a blatant abuse of office meant to intimidate and silence an independent journalist. Kat endured harassment, threats, and online attacks as a result of his false claims.

Now, we need your help to cover the legal fees we incurred while holding him accountable.

Our first priority was to stop the harassment and death threats Kat was receiving. We stopped the bleeding, so to say, but unfortunately, as part of the settlement, Gerretsen wasn’t required to cover our legal costs.