The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) must face a defamation lawsuit by a U.S. charity alleging the publicly funded news outlet repeatedly aired false claims that it deceived its donors, a Washington, D.C., federal judge has ruled.

U.S. District Judge Randolph D. Moss on Tuesday rejected the CBC’s bid to dismiss the case on the grounds that a Canadian court would be the more appropriate venue. WE Charity, which once operated in Canada but is suing through its U.S. affiliate based in upstate New York, alleged in its February 2022 complaint that the CBC knowingly aired false claims that the nonprofit inflated the number of schoolhouses it had built in Kenya and deceived donors about how their money was being spent, among other things.

A CBC spokesperson said Wednesday that the network does not comment on pending litigation but “stands by its story and is fully prepared to defend this case.” A lawyer for WE Charity, Joseph Kroetsch of Boies Schiller Flexner LLP, said in a statement that the ruling was an “important first win.”

“WE Charity’s donors and those who rely on its work deserve to see for themselves the evidence that CBC lied about the charity despite knowing the harm those lies would cause,” Kroetsch said. WE Charity alleges the CBC’s hour-long investigative story about it advanced false claims about its finances and projects that were contradicted by the network’s own reporting and information WE Charity provided.