After more than five years of legal wrangling, the Yukon News and Dr. Said Secerbegovic have reached a private settlement of the doctor's defamation suit against the newspaper.

"It was an amicable settlement and a fair settlement, and that's it,” Dr. Secerbegovic told the Star today.

"We're glad it's over,” said Steve Robertson, the News' owner and publisher.

Secerbegovic indicated there would be an announcement about the settlement in Friday's Yukon News.

Both men declined to reveal the details of the deal, as is typical in out-of-court settlements.

In 2005, Secerbegovic sued the newspaper over an editorial by editor Richard Mostyn. It accused the veteran Watson Lake doctor and pharmacist of being in a conflict of interest because he is both the prescriber and seller of prescription drugs in the B.C.-Yukon border town.

The editorial was based largely on information taken from an investigative series by Nancy Thomson, a CBC radio host and reporter .

Her investigation was prompted by her discovery that Secerbegovic's prescriptions for Ativan and Tylenol 3, both highly addictive drugs, had more than doubled between 2002 and 2003.

During her research, Thomson spoke to several residents of Watson Lake who spoke candidly – and confidentially – of prescription drug abuse in the small town.

One young woman told Thomson she took powerful Tylenol 3 painkillers for her hangovers. This is a dangerous combination, as the prescription-level Tylenol contains codeine, which is not recommended for alcoholics or people with liver disease. The young woman told Thomson she had a drinking problem and was diagnosed with severe liver damage.

She and other interviewees told Thomson people who had prescriptions for painkillers and other addictive substances would get extra pills by claiming they had lost the originals, then sell them.

According to the transcripts of her interviews, when Thomson asked one of her sources if the town's doctor or the RCMP knew about this black market, he replied: "They don't care.”

About four months after Thomson did her initial interviews, she returned to Watson Lake to follow up with her sources.

One man she had spoken to, Gordon Stewart, had died just before Thomson's arrival. He and Lyndon Johnny were found dead behind the town's liquor store, with an empty package of pills from the pharmacy close at hand.

An autopsy showed the men had died about a day before they were found, Stewart of a mixed prescription-drug overdose and Lyndon of acute alcohol poisoning.

According to the coroner's report, Stewart had gone into Secerbegovic's pharmacy the day before he died saying he had lost a week's worth of anti-psychotic, anti-depressant and anti-anxiety pills. He was given a new prescription.

The "lost” pill pack was found near Stewart's body, while the replacement prescription was never located.

Following Thomson's series, she did a live radio interview with Premier Dennis Fentie, who is a close friend of the doctor's and the MLA for Watson Lake. In it, he accused Thomson of sensationalizing the issue and stormed out of the studio.

That prompted Mostyn to write his editorial, which outlined Thomson's series and the ensuing interview with Fentie.

Secerbegovic responded by suing the paper for defamation.

The doctor claimed the News' editorial accused him of "over-prescribing”, "unnecessarily prescribing” and "improperly prescribing” medications to his patients; all for his own financial gain, according to documents filed by Secerbegovic.

Although Thomson and the CBC were not sued, they soon became embroiled in the case.

The Yukon News demanded Thomson hand over her notes and all the names of the people she interviewed, and indicated it would call those people to testify in the defamation trial.

Thomson refused, saying her sources were extremely vulnerable to further victimization if their names were revealed.

Late last month, the News dropped its application against Thomson, and agreed to pay all her legal fees.

If the matter had gone to a hearing, it would have marked the first time in Canadian history that a news organization tried to force a reporter to reveal confidential sources.

The settlement between Secerbegovic and the News comes after the two parties met Monday morning during a closed session in judge's chambers in front of Supreme Court Justice Leigh Gower.

As recently as two weeks ago, the two sides seemed prepared to go to trial. According to court documents, the court sheriff had been ordered to send out a jury summons and a court date was set for May

Because the case was settled out of court, any documents relating to the settlement are not available to the public.

When the defamation suit was still headed to court, a source close to the case told the Star the doctor was demanding $800,000 in damages from the twice-weekly paper.

The source spoke on the condition of anonymity because the person was not authorized to speak about the case.

As the case has worked its way through the courts, both sides have likely already spent tens of thousands of dollars on legal fees.

But the close of the case does not put to rest the conflict-of-interest accusations against Secerbegovic.

He is currently being investigated by the Alberta college of physicians and surgeons because of a complaint filed by Watson Lake resident Don Taylor, who said the doctor is in breach of the Medical Professions Act.

According to the act, no doctor can receive "any financial remuneration ... from any person who fills a prescription.”

Taylor complained that as a pharmacist, Secerbegovic is essentially making money off his prescriptions.