The legal record
Court filings, pre-publication correspondence, and the documented history of legal proceedings related to this coverage.
Dr. Goodenowe has taken legal action to address what he alleges are factual inaccuracies and misleading statements in CBC's reporting. This page provides the factual record of those proceedings, the pre-publication legal correspondence between his counsel and CBC, and context about previous legal challenges to the same reporter's work.
All claims described on this page are allegations that have not been proven in court unless otherwise stated. We present the filings and public statements as they exist in the public record.
Goodenowe v. CBC and Geoff Leo
What the claim alleges
The statement of claim alleges that CBC's reporting, beginning with the June 2025 article "Hard to Swallow," contained false statements and was published with reckless disregard for the truth. Specifically, the claim alleges that:
- The articles contained "highly inflammatory and factually misleading statements"
- CBC failed to provide Dr. Goodenowe with an adequate opportunity to rebut the allegations
- The reporting omitted context and misled readers
- Leo "was negligent in not verifying the information as being accurate" or maintaining editorial balance
What the claim seeks
- General damages for reputational harm, direct financial loss, and damage to social standing
- Removal of the articles
- A prohibition on Leo or CBC publishing further articles about Dr. Goodenowe
- Pre-judgment interest
- Costs on a solicitor-client basis
"I welcome fair, rigorous journalism. But when reporting crosses the line into defamation to satisfy a reporter's personal pre-determined false narrative, it undermines public trust and damages years of dedicated work. Large news organizations like CBC wield great power. With such power comes the responsibility to not abuse it or allow it to be used for oppression by its reporters. This legal action is about ensuring accuracy and accountability, not just for myself, but for others that are less able to defend themselves against such abuses of power."
Dr. Dayan Goodenowe, public statementStatus
Active. CBC has not publicly filed a statement of defence as of April 2026. Leo has continued to publish articles about Dr. Goodenowe while personally named as a defendant. The tenth article in the series was published March 30, 2026, six days after Dr. Goodenowe's counsel sent a formal pre-publication warning letter to CBC's legal representative. See: Pre-publication correspondence, below.
Pre-publication correspondence
On March 20, 2026, Geoff Leo sent Dr. Goodenowe a list of pre-publication questions for what Leo characterized as a forthcoming article about Dr. Goodenowe's "history in Saskatchewan." This was the direct precursor to Article 10, published March 30, 2026.
On March 24, 2026, his counsel, Brian Kolenda of Lenczner Slaght LLP, responded on Dr. Goodenowe's behalf, addressed to Candice Grant of Robertson Stromberg LLP, CBC's legal representative, and copied directly to Leo. The letter placed the following matters on the formal record, six days before Article 10 published.
The pattern of omission
The letter stated that across at least nine published articles, Leo and CBC had demonstrated "a pattern of reporting that consistently omits material context about Dr. Goodenowe's scientific work and professional history." It raised specific concern about Leo's "willingness to rely and report on incomplete and inaccurate information."
The GOFI valuation and receivership
The letter stated that Golden Opportunities Fund Inc. (GOFI), the institutional investor that initiated the receivership of Phenomenome Discoveries Inc. (PDI), the company Dr. Goodenowe founded and led until 2016, carried its PDI equity holdings at a fair value implying a total PDI enterprise value of $133.5 million in its semi-annual report as of February 28, 2015. It confirmed that the PDI receivership was initiated by GOFI, and that PDI's assets were acquired by a group of PDI's own investors through Med-Life Discoveries LP "for a fraction of their true value."
The two clinical programs
The letter clarified that Dr. Goodenowe's pre-receivership statements referred to two separate programs: the Alzheimer's disease (AD) program, for which an Investigational New Drug (IND) application for PPI-1011 had been filed with the FDA and was in progress; and the Rhizomelic Chondrodysplasia Punctata (RCDP) program, a rare and fatal pediatric disease, for which a separate IND was being prepared. The letter stated that "the PDI receivership, not any absence of scientific progress, interrupted the path to formal clinical trials for both AD and RCDP."
The Lakeview property
The letter confirmed that the property at 1400 Lakeview Road is owned by 4089074 Manitoba Ltd. Dr. Goodenowe leases the property from this company. He has no ownership interest in or other association with that company.
Concern about the source of the story
The letter expressed formal concern about "the interests of those who may be working through Mr. Leo to promote such negative stories, including those with a financial interest in Dr. Goodenowe's professional and financial ruin." This concern was placed on the record six days before Article 10 published, featuring Peter Blaney as its primary witness.
Document preservation request
The letter requested preservation of all documents related to Leo's reporting, including notes from interviews, electronic communications, and documents provided by unnamed sources. It specifically requested that if Leo or CBC used Signal, Telegram, or other messaging platforms with auto-delete functionality, those functions be suspended and a complete record maintained.
Article 10 was published six days later, on March 30, 2026. This pre-publication correspondence is part of the formal legal record in case KBG-RG-01794-2025.
Unedited interviews
For transparency, Dr. Goodenowe has made available the original unedited video interviews he provided to CBC and Geoff Leo, along with firsthand client testimonials, so the public can view the complete conversations without edits or omissions.
Readers can compare the full interviews with the portions that appeared in the published articles and form their own assessment of how the material was used.
Previous legal challenges to CBC's reporting
Legal challenges to investigative reporting are not uncommon. The following is the public record of previous legal actions arising from the same reporter's work.
Boyd v. CBC (2016–2018)
Following the publication of Geoff Leo's articles on the Global Transportation Hub land scandal, then-Saskatchewan cabinet minister Bill Boyd filed a defamation lawsuit against CBC.
The case was resolved through confidential mediation in May 2018. As part of the resolution, CBC Saskatchewan's Managing Editor David Hutton issued a public statement:
"The CBC reported on a matter of public interest. We regret if Mr. Boyd or anyone else believed that the CBC was implying criminality or illegal conduct on the part of Mr. Boyd. That was not the case."
Boyd received no financial consideration. He stated: "For me, this was never about the money. This was about defending my reputation."
Michelle Latimer v. CBC (2021, Dropped)
Following CBC's reporting on filmmaker Michelle Latimer's Indigenous identity claims, Latimer filed a defamation lawsuit in the Ontario Superior Court of Justice seeking $200,000 in punitive damages. She alleged the reporting was "malicious, high-handed and arrogant."
Latimer filed a notice of discontinuance in October 2021, having never served the defendants with the statement of claim. The lawsuit was effectively dropped before it reached the defendants.
Note: Leo was not personally named in this case, though it arose from CBC's broader Indigenous identity reporting program during the same period.
Source
APTN News, November 17, 2021The legal process exists so that disputes over accuracy and fairness can be resolved by courts rather than by the parties involved. Dr. Goodenowe's case against CBC is proceeding through that process.
In the meantime, this site provides the documented record, the science, the community investment, and the verified facts, that readers can use to form a complete picture.
Read the full timeline
The complete chronological record of Dr. Goodenowe's work, the coverage, and the legal proceedings.
Complete timeline →