A safety inspector is suing the national broadcaster for publishing what he says is a personally insulting and professionally damaging attack on its web comment board.

Robert Scott's weight, his competence and his credibility all come under fire in the post, which he says clearly breaks the CBC's own comment guidelines.

He says his "ability to work in this community has been severely affected by these libelous statements,” and he is suing the broadcaster for $125,000, plus legal expenses and interest.

Scott works for the occupational health and safety branch of the workers' compensation board.

He filed the claim after a person with the user name BCHimself posted a long comment on a story about workplace safety charges laid against Procon Mining and Tunnelling.

Procon is facing the charges after the death of 20-year-old Paul Wentzell, who was struck and killed by an unoccupied vehicle on the Wolverine mine site.

The charges allege the vehicle was parked on an incline and did not have a proper braking mechanism. In the comment, BCHimself said Yukon health and safety inspectors are "unqualified to investigate let alone recommend charges be laid against contracting companies such as Procon.”

The post names Scott and another man. The other man has not filed a defamation suit.

BCHimself goes on to say the inspectors have no previous law enforcement or investigative experience, but that several have union backgrounds "and have made documented statements that they were out to ‘get' contractors due to their not wanting union representation in the workforce.”

This is patently false, Scott says in his statement of claim, but someone reading BCHimself's post would read it as fact, not opinion.

The poster also suggests that overweight former police officers have no business investigating health and safety cases.

This comment is "malicious and cruel,” Scott claims.

He says the attack on his personal and professional character was "unsolicited ... false, libelous, defamatory and filled with malice” and would make a reasonable person think he has a "vendetta against contractors.”

Scott read the post on Oct. 13, 2010, the day it was written, and immediately reported it as abusive via the CBC's comments board.

It clearly broke the submission guidelines which list "personal attacks and defamatory statements” as unacceptable.

However, the post was still there the next day, and it wasn't until Scott's lawyer called the CBC Whitehorse and CBC Yellowknife offices to complain that it was taken down on Oct. 15.

Since then, he has demanded an apology and a retraction on the website, but the CBC has done nothing, according to Scott.

Even with an apology, Scott claims, the damage is done.

"Once on the web, there was and is no method to retract the libelous statements .... Anyone reading those comments on the website can republish the message by reprinting it and sending it again and again.”

A case management conference for the two parties is scheduled for Feb. 8.