Local blogger Gerry Barker intends to defend himself against a $500,000 defamation lawsuit launched against him by City of Guelph Deputy CAO Mark Amorosi.
Barker filed a notice of intent to defend with the Ontario Superior Court of Justice on Nov. 29.
He is being represented by Guelph lawyer Sharon Ilavsky of the law firm Miller Thomson.
Amorosi filed the lawsuit on Nov. 15.
Amorosi claims statements and accusations made on Barker's GuelphSpeaks.ca blog over the last four years are false, defamatory and hurt his reputation.
He claims Barker has made statements that when read and understood by "reasonable readers" would, among other things, inaccurately portray Amorosi as someone that doesn't know what he's talking about, misinforms the public, is irresponsible, distorts facts, gave himself and others unauthorized raises, is not qualified to be a Deputy CAO and is incompetent and irresponsible.
It also states Barker made no attempt to confirm facts, intentionally omits certain facts and that he has never interviewed or contacted Amorosi regarding the accusations.
None of the accusations made by Amorosi have yet been proven in court and Barker has not yet filed his statement of defence.
