The law firm representing Warren Kinsella tweeted a notice of libel at Nick Kouvalis Friday afternoon.
The former war room chief for the Olivia Chow mayoralty campaign is threatening to sue a John Tory strategist — via Twitter.
On Friday afternoon, the Toronto law firm Shillers LLP tweeted at Tory campaign strategist and former Rob Ford strategist Nick Kouvalis on behalf of Warren Kinsella for comments he made on Twitter.
On Thursday, the Chow campaign announced Kinsella would “step back” from the day-to-day affairs of the race but would remain a volunteer. That move followed controversy over a tweet sent by Kinsella calling Tory’s SmartTrack transit plan “segregationist.”
Tory’s team decried the tweet, saying it wrongly accused Tory of being racist. Kinsella later deleted the tweet in question and posted an apology he sent that distanced his actions from the Chow campaign.
The law firm’s tweet contained a notice of libel alleging Kouvalis defamed Kinsella by suggesting he was fired by Chow’s campaign, that he made a “negative contribution” to the campaign, that the campaign is “better off” without him and that Kinsella is “easily replaceable.”
The notice contains snapshots of several tweets sent by Kouvalis Thursday night where he writes: “The campaign made a very smart move dumping Kinsella et al today.”
Another tweet sent to Chow and Kinsella contained a YouTube link to Beyonce’s top hit Irreplaceable.
The notice says “Kouvalis was motivated by malice when he posted the defamatory words” and outlined that Kinsella and Kouvalis have long been political opponents.
Shortly after Kouvalis was tweeted about the libel notice, he sent a tweet of his own.
“I think this is a wonderful song,” Kouvalis wrote, linking to another song: Johnny Cash’s, A Boy Named Sue.
Neither Kouvalis nor Kinsella’s lawyer David Shiller immediately responded to a request for comment. Kinsella referred all comments to his lawyer.
The libel notice demands Kouvalis apologize by the end of day on Sept. 3 — via Twitter.