A defamation lawsuit launched by the mayor and two of his allies on Langley Township council claims that a fellow councillor, a former B.C. cabinet minister, and one of the community's most prominent business owners targeted them through an anonymous website.
Mayor Eric Woodward and councillors Tim Baillie and Rob Rindt are suing Coun. Kim Richter and her husband Bob Richter, former longtime Langley-area MLA and cabinet minister Rich Coleman, plus Thomas Martini, and his company Lorval Developments.
Also being sued are Lower Mainland political operative Micah Haince, Jean Francoi Louis Hardy, who runs a public relations and consulting firm, as well as Kalim Kassam of White Rock, and a numbered B.C. company owned by Coleman.
None of the allegations made in the statement of claim have been tested in court.
The lawsuit claims that Woodward, Baillie, and Rindt were defamed by an article and a string of videos that began in the summer of 2024 and continued through early 2025.
The issue began, according to documents filed in B.C. Supreme Court in Vancouver, with the purchase of new fire trucks for the Township.
Woodward was elected mayor in 2022, with Coleman running against him.
After the election, Woodward and his Contract With Langley (now Progress For Langley) slate pushed forward with plans to expand the fire department, including purchasing new equipment. Rindt and Baillie are two of the original six members of the slate elected to council.
The previous council had also ordered some fire trucks, which faced delays, resulting in the contract being cancelled and issued to the second-best bidder. The lawsuit notes that more fire trucks were purchased through a Canadian not-for-profit organization called Canoe Procurement Group, which leverages purchasing power for cities, health authorities, and school boards.
Most of the trucks ordered in 2024 came from Pierce Manufacturing, and they were ordered through Commercial Truck Equipment, the only vendor for Pierce in Western Canada – an affiliate of the Canoe program.
"The fire department's decision to acquire the Pierce fire trucks and equipment from Commercial through Canoe was made without any input, direction, or influence from the Township's mayor, or from council," the plaintiff's claim says. Council voted in favour of a multi-year plan to purchase the trucks for a little more than $10 million on March 11, 2024.
In the summer of 2024, an article appeared on the Langley Monitor site, called "Friends With Benefits," claiming that a no-bid purchase of $11.5 million worth of fire trucks had been made by the Township, and alleging that the sales rep for Commercial was a political ally of Woodward.
Then on Jan. 2, 2025, the Langley Township Watch Facebook page posted a video making substantially the same claims, also alleging that "a political insider got a very special deal at the expense of Langley taxpayers." It was promoted as the first part in a series, and further instalments came out on Jan. 17 and Feb. 3.
Originally the lawsuit, filed on May 1 this year, targeted a dozen John Does, because the creators of the videos, article, web page, and Facebook page were anonymous.
Through the spring and summer, lawyers for Woodward, Baillie, and Rindt filed court applications seeking information on who was behind the websites and Facebook groups. They were successful in getting judges' orders for Meta and other organizations to turn over information.
According to court documents, the Langley Township Watch Facebook group had been created by a company called Fountainhead Communications, run by Angelo Isidorou, who is the executive director of the B.C. Conservative Party. Isidorou is not being sued.
Lawyers for Fountainhead said the page had been made for a client, and on Aug. 25, Fountainhead and Isidorou disclosed documents showing that the company had received $250,000, including $100,000 for "services" and $150,000 for reimbursement for placing ads.
The documents, attached to an affidavit, show text chains and emails, most of them allegedly including Coleman and Isidorou, with the Richters allegedly sending council-related documents to Coleman. Martini was also emailing Coleman, emails which Coleman appears to have passed along to Isidorou.
One undated email to Isidorou and Haince, allegedly from Coleman, has a subject line referencing the Friends With Benefits page.
"The door is open. Now we have even more material. Good stuff," it reads.
On Oct. 2, 2024, Isidorou emailed an attachment titled "Analytics Report" to Coleman.
Coleman replied: "Thanks. I told Micah that I can wait for this snd [sic] the billing until after the writ," referring to the then-imminent provincial election.
The plaintiffs' lawyers have filed another court application, seeking a judge's order that Fountainhead turn over billing and invoice documents between Fountainhead, Coleman and two numbered B.C. companies.
On Sept. 3, the plaintiffs filed an updated claim – this time naming Kassam as the owner of The Langley Monitor. The lawsuit also alleges that Coleman, his company, and Hardy were the administrators of the Langley Township Watch Facebook group.
Still unidentified "John Does" are also alleged to be involved with both sites.
The suit also claims that the videos were published online by Coleman, Thomas Martini, his company Lorval, Kim and Bob Richter, Haince and Hardy.
The statement of claim says the article and videos are "false and defamatory" and asks people to infer that Woodward, Baillie, and Rindt are corrupt and may be guilty of breach of trust. It accuses the defendants of "actual malice" and of causing "substantial and persisting injury to the reputation of each plaintiff," as well as "severe emotional distress" and injury to their personal and professional relationships.
It calls for "a substantial award for aggravated damages" to each plaintiff, punitive damages, and special costs in addition to general damages.
By press deadlines on Monday, Sept. 15 no official responses from any defendants had been posted publicly in online court records. In general, defendants have 30 days to respond to civil claims, although that time can be extended.
Woodward said he heard from many residents about the videos since they started running online.
"Many expressed sympathies for staff as well, personally named and targeted, especially because it was anonymous," he said, characterizing the claims in the videos as false.
He said he was not expecting that Richter, a sitting councillor, would be a defendant when the lawsuit started against the unknown "John Does."
"I don’t expect it to affect council’s ability to continue to deliver for residents and taxpayers," Woodward said.
The Martini-owned and run Lorval won a court action against the Township earlier this year over development fees.
The Langley Advance Times has attempted to reach out to all the defendants in the lawsuit, but could not locate current contact information for Kassam or Hardy.
