Northwestel drops libel suit against Whitehorse businessman

Northwestel has dropped its defamation lawsuit against a Whitehorse company and its owner.

Last week, lawyers forNorthwestelfiled a consent order in Yukon Supreme Court suspending the lawsuit against Orange Technology and Martin Lehner.

The suit stemmed from public comments Lehnermadelast yearcriticizing Northwestel's internet service in Whitehorseduringan interview on CBC Radio in Yukon.

Lehnerwas being interviewed about internet service in the Whitehorse area, and described complaints he said he hadheard from Northwestel customersabout frequent outages. Lehner also said those customers had been told by Northwestelthere were no plans to fix the problems.

In its statement of claim,Northwestelsaid parts of Lehner'scomments "were untrue, were reckless with respect to its truth and had an improper motive in making the statement."

Lehner's statement of defence saidthe comments were not defamatory because they weretrue.

There are no details on why Northwestel suspended the lawsuit.