File photo (Image Credit: CFJC Today)

By Michael Reeve

DEFAMATION CASE

Kamloops councillor’s lawyer wraps up argument to dismiss defamation case; mayor’s lawyer off to shaky start

Sep 23, 2025 | 5:01 PM

KAMLOOPS — After a lengthy day in court on Monday (Sept. 22), Kamloops councillor Katie Neustaeter and Mayor Reid Hamer-Jackson were back on the fifth floor of the Kamloops courthouse for their defamation case Tuesday. This week, BC Supreme Court is hearing a motion from Neustaeter to dismiss the case against her. Hamer-Jackson alleges four instances of defamation by Neustaeter — one a verbal statement made to council, two statements made in emails between council and staff, and the fourth a statement made on behalf of council back in 2023 in response to proposed changes to the committee structure at city hall.

Day Two began with Neustaeter’s lawyer, Daniel Reid, again attempting to poke holes in the mayor’s argument that members of the public took the term ‘personal and professional boundaries’ to include sexual or physical assault.

After focusing on Hamer-Jackson’s previous lawyer making the first comment to that extent in an opinion article, Neustaeter’s lawyer also pointed to the Joshua Knaak case, saying Knaak’s alleged statement was based upon an interaction at a bar well before the statement made by Neustaeter in March, 2023.

It was also noted that a code of conduct investigation was conducted by the city after the mayor began alleging that Neustaeter’s comments led to people calling him a pervert. Hamer-Jackson was unable to provide any names during that investigation, citing their privacy. The investigation eventually found Hamer-Jackson violated the code of conduct.

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Neustaeter’s lawyer also addressed what will seemingly be a point of contention from the plaintiff, which is that Neustaeter never clarified that she didn’t not mean sexual assault in her comments. It was submitted that Neustaeter both confirmed that in the code of conduct report and during an interview with the CBC in 2023.

Part of the PPPA application is working to show that the move was politically motivated. Neustaeter’s lawyer attempted to make that connection through Hamer-Jackson’s legal history, pointing to him alleging assault against a reporter in town, telling CFJC News in June of 2025 that his past history with the reporter led to the decision to file the police report.

CFJC article referenced by Daniel Reid (image credit – CFJC Today)

Neustaeter’s lawyer told Justice Jacqueline Hughes this shows a pattern of using legal action to go after his critics, like Castanet’s Tim Petruk, Knaak and Neustaeter.

Reid concluded his submissions in the afternoon, relating it to previous case law, before Hamer-Jackson’s lawyer Jody Wells took over the proceedings. That is when things began to slow down.

Wells began to attempt to showcase to the court two main points — first, the difference between Neustaeter’s assertion that Hamer-Jackson wouldn’t speak with Kevin Krueger as opposed to reaching out. Second, that Neustaeter had not given any evidence to Hamer-Jackson that her father was actually ill.

However, in her attempts to make her case, Wells noted that she was working on an unyielding amount of materials and that she would try to find her rhythm. On multiple statements and submissions, Justice Hughes required extensive clarification, at one point telling Wells she needs to specify when she is inferring from the evidence and not taking it verbatim.

Neustaeter’s lawyer also rose on an objection, that Wells was misrepresenting the evidence in relation to Neustaeter’s cross-examination. Wells claimed Neustaeter stated that Hamer-Jackson told her in an email that he would not initiate contact, while Neustaeter’s lawyer pointed out that Wells failed to mention that it was the second time Neustaeter had asked Hamer-Jackson not to speak to her father.

The court proceeding ended early on Tuesday afternoon to allow Wells to better align her materials with the hard copy documents used by Justice Hughes.