After Admitting To Perjury, Bullying Expert Barbara Coloroso Concedes Defeat In Legal Battle With Co-author

The litigation arose from a 2010 agreement between Coloroso and Andrew Faas, a Canadian philanthropist and retired senior executive, to collaborate on a book on bullying in the workplace for HarperCollins Publishers Ltd.  However, Coloroso refused to complete her share of the book, accusing Faas of plagiarism.  Both HarperCollins and Faas were willing to address Coloroso's concerns through the editing process, but Coloroso declined.  HarperCollins terminated the agreement, as no finished manuscript was delivered.  Faas and Coloroso sued each other for breach of contract.  The action was commenced in the Ontario Superior Court of Justice (Court File No. CV-12-454927).

In 2013, Faas sought to publish his own book on bullying in the workplace, The Bully's Trap, with a new publisher.  Unbeknownst to Faas, the publisher made The Bully's Trap available for sale on its website before it was finished.  Coloroso purchased the book and claimed that it infringed her copyright.  The Bully's Trap was immediately pulled from the website.  Only two electronic and paperback copies were sold during the six weeks that the book was offered for sale, one of each to Coloroso. Nevertheless, she claimed $5 million from Faas for copyright infringement.

Coloroso told a Toronto Star newspaper reporter Amy Dempsey about her dispute with Faas, and gave her a copy of The Bully's Trap.  Dempsey wrote an article about the dispute, which the Toronto Star published on August 24, 2013.  The article favoured Coloroso and portrayed Faas as a plagiarist, but did not reveal Coloroso as Dempsey's source.  During an examination on March 5, 2014, Coloroso committed perjury by stating under oath that she "did not give the story to Amy Dempsey" and that she had no knowledge of how The Toronto Star had come to publish the article.  She also denied sharing her copy of The Bully's Trap with the Toronto Star, and denied any knowledge of who had done so. 

Normally, the Toronto Star article would have dropped over time in the ranking of Google search results on Faas' name.  However, the article still ranks at the top of the Google search results for Andrew Faas.  Faas commissioned a report from a search engine optimization forensics expert, who concluded that the article was highly ranked largely because it had been linked to multiple times by the website of an anti-bullying organization called the Workplace Bullying Institute. One of the directors of the Institute is Dr. Gary Namie, a friend and colleague of Coloroso.

The trial of Faas' action and Coloroso's counterclaim was scheduled to commence on Monday, June 12, 2017.  Dempsey was to be one of the first witnesses, and Faas' lawyers intended to ask her who her source was. By letter sent on June 9, 2017, Coloroso admitted through her lawyers that she had given the story to the Toronto Star and had provided a copy of The Bully's Trap to Dempsey, contrary to what she had previously said under oath.  The case settled without a trial.  Coloroso received nothing for her claims.  She agreed to make a $20,000 (Canadian currency) payment to Faas and to use best efforts to cause Dr. Gary Namie to remove the Workplace Bullying Institute web postings, which have now been taken down.  Coloroso also settled a defamation action commenced against her by Faas in the Ontario Superior Court of Justice (Court File No. CV-16-551504) by providing Faas with a written apology for a mass e-mail that she had sent to more than 200 of Faas' friends and colleagues.  While Faas is pleased with the outcome of the case, he says the harm to his reputation from Coloroso's actions lives on, in the form of damaged relationships, loss of business opportunities, and interference with his many philanthropic endeavors. 

"Namie, Barbara Coloroso and the Workplace Bullying Institute should not be in the business of giving bullying advice other than how to bully," said Faas.

ANDREW FAAS is an author, activist, revolutionist, philanthropist and management advisor promoting psychologically healthy, safe and fair workplaces. Before becoming a philanthropist, he led some of Canada's largest public corporations for over three decades as a senior executive, developing a sterling reputation in conflict management. He founded the Faas Foundation, which supports non-profit organizations concerned with workplace well-being and other personal health and research endeavors. Currently he is partnering with the Yale Center for Emotional Intelligence on a groundbreaking initiative, Emotion Revolution in the Workplace, which will revolutionize the way organizations operate, leveraging the power of emotional intelligence; and Mental Health America, to help reduce unnecessary stress factors at work and eliminate stigma around a condition that affects one in five adults.

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SOURCE Andrew Faas

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