Kelowna drag queen performer sues for defamation

Photo: Castanet

Tyson Cook, or Frieda Whales, at a drag show story time in Kelowna in 2023 that attracted duelling protests.

A well known Kelowna performer is suing the people allegedly behind a false “malicious and defamatory campaign.”

Tyson Cook, who performs in drag under the stage name Frieda Whales, is suing the organization Action4Canada, Graeme Flannigan, Tammy Ann Mitchell, Tori Olason, and someone named Person A for damages relating to a smear campaign he said cost him money, hurt his reputation and took an emotional toll.

According to a statement of claim filed in December 2024, the aforementioned parties took aim at Cook in January 2023 when Whales was featured as part of the Okanagan Regional Library’s drag story time in Kelowna. The family friendly event featured “Freida Whales, a talented performer and storyteller,” as she shared her favourite stories.

When Action4Canada and the other parties learned of the event, they first started a petition they named “stop taxpayer funded drag queen sexualization of children.”

They used the petition to demand that “taxpayers money” stop being used for the program, and called on the school district to reconsider Cook in his day job as an educational assistant, according to the claim.

Cook alleges that Action4Canada then made a number of false and reputation-damaging claims of a sexual and criminal nature relentlessly spilled onto websites, emails, and social media platforms, and were even featured in the so-called Freedom Rallies being held at the time.

Cook said that they were devastating personally and professionally, and caused significant injury to “his pride and self confidence.”

“The social and economic impact on the drag community in the Okanagan area, and the absence and refusal by the defendants to retract the the defamatory publications and issue an apology” has exacerbated the situation, according to Cook.

On several dates in 2024, Cook has his lawyer sent cease and desist letters, explaining their actions were defamatory and demanding they remove the content from wherever they placed it.

“Injunctive relief is required to prevent irreparable harm to the plaintiff, as the defendants, through their conduct and repetition of the defamatory publications, have shown they will not cease their vitriol defamatory campaign against the plaintiff unless enjoined by this court,” reads the claim.

As of the time of the claim being filed, none of the material about Cook or the Whales persona had been removed from the internet and as of late last month, the people named had seemingly doubled down on their right to make these comments.

Action4Canada Inc. responded to the claim in February 2025, admitting to publishing the content quoted but denies that the statements are unfounded, coordinated, malicious, defamatory and/or false. They said it does not meet the bar for defamation.

Mitchell also filed a response where she admitted to posting the information but denied that the statements are unfounded, coordinated, malicious, defamatory and/or false.

Flannigan's response went further.

"The statements made by the defendant regarding the plaintiff are true," Flannigan said in his response.

"Evidence proves the statements made by the defendant regarding the plaintiff are true. True statements are not defamation."

Flannigan went on to say Cook and his lawyer are both "activists with a political axe to grind who are abusing the process of the legal system by filing a frivolous (lawsuit) falsely claiming true information is defamation because they are trying to stifle and censor accurate and true information that is in the public interest."

None of the defaming comments against Cook have been proven.