A radio report about a local doctor's several-year battle after a local girl died of botulism has cost taxpayers money.

A notice to discontinue Dr. Allon Reddoch's defamation lawsuit against CBC North and two of its reporters was filed with the Yukon Supreme Court Tuesday because the two sides settled out of court, the doctor said in an interview this morning.

Neither side is saying how much the Canadian Broadcasting Corp. is paying out to the Whitehorse doctor, who was embroiled in the courts for years after the Yukon Medical Council initially found him guilty of unprofessional conduct in 1998.

That finding, as well as a Yukon Supreme Court decision in a civil case finding the doctor and Whitehorse General Hospital negligent in the 1996 death of 16-year-old Mary-Ann Grennan, has since been overturned by higher courts. Initially, the teenager's estate was awarded $143,000.

On Feb. 13, 2003, CBC North radio in the Yukon broadcast a story about Ed Grennan, Mary-Ann Grennan's father, appealing the Yukon Court of Appeal's decision that overturned the negligence ruling all the way to the Supreme Court of Canada.

After the Feb. 13, 2003, broadcast, Reddoch said he asked the local CBC for a correction to be aired over details in the radio report.

One was aired over two days, said Reddoch. However, that correction managed to repeat the error he'd complained about in the first place, he said.

He filed a lawsuit last July, arguing he'd been defamed by radio reporter Brian Boyle's story, read by on-air announcer Frances Lew. That case is now over with the financial settlement in his favour.

The nation's top court, which hears a tiny percentage of cases filed with it, opted not to hear Grennan's appeal in July 2003.

'The arrangement is that I have given, through my lawyer, permission to CBC to release the details of the settlement, the financial compensation,' Reddoch said this morning.

The doctor said if the CBC didn't want the details made public, he'd abide by its wishes, though he hasn't asked the financial figure awarded to him be kept quiet.

CBC North's regional director, Mike Linder, was not available for comment before deadline this afternoon as he was travelling today between Yellowknife and Whitehorse.

However, a spokeswoman at the CBC's national headquarters in Toronto said the publicly-funded corporation has a policy of not releasing details of lawsuits settled out of court.

'I think it's normal business practice to not discuss the issues of a settlement,' said spokeswoman Ruth-Ellen Soles.

'We're accountable to the Canadian public in many, many ways. This is an issue that is between two people, or between the CBC and Dr. Reddoch,' she said. 'We have now settled the matter and it is now resolved.'

Reddoch's name has been in print and on airwaves in the Yukon and across the country for years over the ongoing case. Along with the civil case against Reddoch and WGH as well as the medical council's ruling and the ensuing appeals, the doctor spent considerable time fighting via the Access to Information system to see the evidence used against him by the medical council.

He's still never seen parts of those files after a ruling was made that the medical council is a not a public body and therefore not subject to Access to Information requests.

'These are not specifically issues that affect just the CBC,' Reddoch said about media errors on his case over the years.

'There have been a number of (media) reports, some of which have been accurate, some of which have not been and some have missed the point.'

He resigned his role as president of the Canadian Medical Association to prevent the media focus being taken away from health care topics and simply on him personally, Reddoch said.

As the only doctor North of 60 to head the national body, a 'unique opportunity' was lost for him to champion issues of rural, remote and first nations health amid his very-public battle, Reddoch added.

He also hung up his private practice in late summer 2001. He said then the effort of trying to clear his name as well as care for his patients at the same time was simply too much.

Reddoch is currently a medical consultant to the Yukon Workers' Compensation Health and Safety Board.

'This is the end of the road fully for legal actions,' Reddoch said this morning.

'I think it's sad that CBC wants to go this route rather than broadcasting a correction, which is what I had originally asked for.'