Port Coquitlam MLA and B.C.'s solicitor general and minister of public safety, Mike Farnworth, can rest a little easier today now that he isn't on the hook for a $50-million lawsuit.
A lawsuit claiming the province had become a dictatorship and demanding $50 million in "Honourable Farnworth's Money" was thrown out on Dec. 13, 2022.
Farnworth applied to have the B.C. Supreme Court strike the claim as "frivolous and vexatious and otherwise an abuse of the court."
According to facts in the case, Steven McKee had filed a civil claim against Farnworth.
In oral submissions, McKee said his intention in filing the action was to get "$50,000,000 of Honourable Farnworth's Money."
He wanted to “make a statement towards the rest of Canada and countries of the world, because if we let governments say the country is shutdown, you have to have a vaccine, or a vaccination passport, then we are not in a free world. We are in a dictatorship," the online court document states.
In dismissing the claim, the court applied past jurisprudence to define a vexatious lawsuit and found McKee's suit met the criteria.
"In summary, a claim will be struck where it is plain and obvious, even assuming the facts pleaded are true, that the claim discloses no reasonable cause of action," the court stated.
It added, "A pleading is unnecessary and vexatious if it does not go to establishing a cause of action, does not advance any claim known in law, and where it is obvious that the action cannot succeed or would serve no useful purpose, and would be a waste of the court's time and public resources."
McKee was also ordered to pay $500 in costs.
This is not the first time Farnworth has been targeted.
The long-time MLA was subject to protests and vitriol at the height of pandemic restrictions last year when protesters showed up across the street from his house, drawing RCMP officers to the scene.
