The vice-chair of the Crown corporation that regulates private, post-secondary education has launched a defamation lawsuit to silence a critic of his chain of English as a Second Language (ESL) schools.
Richard Novek, director of operations for Greystone College and International Language Schools of Canada (ILSC), claims in an August 22 BC Supreme Court lawsuit that Warren Brundage, his wife Asuka Sugiyama Brundage, One World Agency and the International Student Assistance Society (ISAS) have caused ILSC a "loss of custom and revenue (present and prospective)" through their Twitter and Facebook posts and leaflet campaign.
"The publication of the words by the defendants (or as caused by the defendants) was actuated by malice in a deliberate attempt by the defendants to harm the business reputation of the plaintiff and to destroy or divert clientele, revenue and profits from the plaintiff to one or more of these defendants directly or indirectly," said the filing by lawyer Andrew Epstein of Watson Goepel.
Novek is the vice-chair of the Private Career Training Institutions Agency of B.C., a Crown corporation that regulates private post-secondary education.
ILSC operates schools in Vancouver, Toronto, Montreal, San Francisco and Sydney and claims 4,200 students at eight locations.
None of the allegations has been proven in court. Brundage has yet to respond in court.
Brundage and others distributed leaflets to ILSC students headlined "Are you unhappy with ILSC? We can help!" outside ILSC's Vancouver campus on August 16, according to the suit.
The lawsuit does not mention that Vancouver Police attended the scene, but an appendix showing the ISAS Facebook group said eight police officers arrived and "tried to make us leave" from the public sidewalk.
VPD spokesman Constable Brian Montague confirmed to Business in Vancouver that police attended the scene but there were no arrests.
Brundage was acting as an advocate for Japanese student Aya Miyazaki, a student from Japan who paid $13,505 to a recruiting agency called Ryugaku Journal to study at ILSC.
A May 31 summary of the complaint against ILSC Education Group Inc. alleged the company broke "multiple parts of the Languages Canada code of conduct and other Languages Canada rules and regulations."
Brundage alleges that ILSC and its agencies do not disclose their refund policy, so that students who are dissatisfied are unable to leave the school. Miyazaki eventually received a 50% refund.
Novek declined comment.
Brundage said, "I will not back down and will fight this in court all the way. The part that concerns me the most is their attempts to repress my right to freedom of speech."
