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Has the Court of Appeal made it harder to succeed on a SLAPP motion in a defamation case? (Benchwood Builders Inc. v. Prescott)
Thursday, March 27, 2025Stephen A. ThieleLitigationTorts, Defamation, SLAPP, Test
For many years, I have written about defamation cases and SLAPP motions in which defendants have sought the early dismissal of defamation actions under section 137.1 of the Courts of Justice Act (“CJA”) or under the equivalent British Columbia anti-SLAPP law...
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Modern, flexible approach to assessment of defamation pleading applied to republication (Sawatzky v. Prince Albert Golf and Curling Club Inc.)
Wednesday, March 5, 2025Stephen A. ThieleLitigationTorts, Defamation, Pleadings
Pleadings are important documents in a civil litigation case...
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Potential liability for torts committed in sports (Cox v. Ball)
Thursday, January 16, 2025Stephen A. ThieleLitigation, Sports LawTorts, Sports, Professional Sports, Liability
Participation in recreational sports is important for many people because it provides them with both positive physical and mental health benefits...
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Defamation action arising out of relationship breakdown allowed to proceed, but no costs ordered (Brown v. Landriault)
Monday, December 30, 2024Stephen A. ThieleLitigationTorts, Defamation, Anti-SLAPP Motion, Unsuccessful
The breakdown of intimate relationships can lead to a war of highly charged words that are published to third persons on social media...
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Lawyer’s defamation action against former colleague dismissed
Monday, December 23, 2024Stephen A. ThieleLitigationTorts, Defamation, Elements, Loss of Reputation
A law partnership is a cooperative but also a competitive environment...
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Meeting of the minds important to the enforceability of a contract (Corridor Transport Inc. v. Lentini)
Monday, October 28, 2024Stephen A. Thiele, Rob Winterstein, Michael LauricellaLitigationContracts, Formation, Torts, Conversion, Identity of the parties
A fundamental principle in the law of contracts is that parties to the contract must be ad idem. In other words, there must be a meeting of the minds of the contracting parties regarding the purpose, scope and....
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Defamation action brought by Freedom Convoy protestors against Canadian Anti-Hate Network dismissed (Cornell v. Trudeau)
Friday, October 4, 2024Isabel YooLitigationTorts, Defamation, Anti-SLAPP
The recent decision of Cornell v. Trudeau, 2024 ONSC 5343 highlights the importance of providing sufficient details and particulars in a claim for defamation...
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Summary judgment granted to dismiss defamation claim (Martel v. Ottawa (City))
Friday, July 12, 2024Stephen A. ThieleLitigationTorts, Defamation, Summary Judgment
Summary judgment is a powerful procedural tool that, among other things, permits a defendant to bring a motion to dismiss an action at an...
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Bank hit with $850,000 damages award for defaming former employee (Curtis v. Bank of Nova Scotia)
Monday, April 29, 2024Stephen A. ThieleLitigationTorts, Defamation, Evidence, Damages
In any civil action, evidence is important for the purposes of either proving or defending against a claim. While in most cases, the...
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The failure to prove publication is fatal to a defamation claim (Knight v. Sunshine Coast Campground Group Ltd.)
Friday, April 12, 2024Stephen A. ThieleLitigationTorts, Defamation, Publication
My purpose in writing law blogs is to educate the reader about the legal issues reviewed in court decisions in a way...
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Defamation action against family members of nursing home resident dismissed (Fiddick Nursing Home Ltd. v. Moore)
Monday, February 26, 2024Stephen A. ThieleLitigationTorts, Defamation, Anti-SLAPP, Dismissal of Action
The COVID-19 pandemic resulted in a lot of media coverage about the care provided to seniors in nursing homes. Seniors were...
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Bona fide complaints to police are matters of public interest (Zeppa v. Rea)
Monday, October 23, 2023Stephen A. ThieleLitigationTorts, Defamation, SLAPP, Matter of Public Interest
When a person believes that someone has committed a crime, it is, of course, perfectly reasonable that they...
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Defamation action against employee who spoke out about workplace racism dismissed (Williams v. Vac Developments Ltd.)
Thursday, October 12, 2023Isabel YooLitigationTorts, Defamation, SLAPP Motion, Dismissed
Our past blogs have discussed anti-SLAPP motions at length. This post explores yet another decision on an...
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Defamation action against “consumer alert” reporter dismissed (Boraks v. Hussein)
Tuesday, September 19, 2023Stephen A. ThieleLitigationTorts, Defamation, SLAPP, Dismissal of Action
In general, ordinary consumers of goods and services are viewed as a vulnerable class. While in certain circumstances, consumers can be protected by...
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Court of Appeal upholds dismissal of anti-SLAPP motion in trucking protest case (2110120 Ontario Inc. v. Buttar)
Friday, August 18, 2023Stephen A. ThieleLitigationTorts, Defamation, SLAPP Motion, Dismissed
Last April, I wrote a blog about a motion judge’s decision to dismiss an anti-SLAPP motion in a trucking protest case on the grounds that the dispute between the parties...
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Torts that Might Apply in a Dispute Between Neighbours in a Condominium (Novakovic v. Salvador)
Tuesday, August 1, 2023Stephen A. ThieleLitigationTorts, Defamation
Part of the purpose of our blogs is to help educate the reader about the law and the tests that apply to various causes of...
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A review of the test for anti-SLAPP motions (Yates v. Iron Horse Corporation and St. Martin)
Monday, July 31, 2023Isabel YooLitigationTorts, Defamation, Anti-SLAPP
The acronym “SLAPP” is short for “strategic lawsuits against public participation”. These are tools used to intimidate or silence criticism by engaging the critic with...
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A Lawyer’s Office is not a Drop Box for Service (Yuk-Shum v. Jiang)
Thursday, July 27, 2023Stephen A. ThieleLitigationTorts, Defamation, Procedure, Notice
Service of an originating process, like a statement of claim, or other court documents is, in general, governed by the...
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The law of defamation in a nutshell (Stratuscent Inc. v. Chehade)
Monday, July 24, 2023Stephen A. ThieleLitigationDefamation, Torts, Remedies, Injunction
Over the past few years, we have written a lot of blogs on the law of defamation...
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Defamatory Online Postings and Cyber-Bullying Leads to One of the Highest Defamation Awards in Canada
Wednesday, July 12, 2023Isabel YooLitigationTorts, Defamation, Damages, Internet
Online defamatory statements have the potential to reach a global audience and maintain a perpetual existence. It is impossible to...
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$50,000 costs guideline for successful anti-SLAPP motion not applied again
Thursday, July 6, 2023Stephen A. ThieleLitigationTorts, Defamation, SLAPP, Costs
As we have written before, Canada’s civil court system is “a loser pays” jurisdiction. In general, a party that loses a motion or...
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“Chilling effect” on a plaintiff or others not grounds for harm on an anti-SLAPP motion
Monday, June 12, 2023Stephen A. Thiele, Michael LauricellaLitigationTorts, Defamation, Anti-SLAPP
Since 2020, two Supreme Court of Canada cases have guided the analysis of anti-SLAPP motions in Ontario and...
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Former Chamber of Commerce employee's defamation action allowed to continue
Monday, February 13, 2023Stephen A. ThieleLitigationTorts, Anti-SLAPP, Defamation, Motion Dismissed
Although section 137.1 of the Courts of Justice Act (the “CJA”), the “anti-SLAPP provision”, has become a powerful tool to dismiss defamation actions at an early stage, there is certainly no guarantee that its use will always be...
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Freedom of expression prevails in responses to COVID-19 protest organizers’ defamation action
Monday, January 16, 2023Stephen A. ThieleLitigationTorts, Anti-SLAPP, Defamation
March 2020 will live in our memories forever. It is the month that, among other things, the world panicked, that governments issued emergency orders to shutdown...
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Defamatory statements made in a pleading are immune to attack
Friday, November 25, 2022Stephen A. ThieleLitigationDefences, Torts, Defamation, Absolute Privilege
The law of defamation permits a defendant to raise specialized defences to defeat a claim. The most common defences are...
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Damages in a defamation action
Friday, November 18, 2022Stephen A. ThieleLitigationDamages, Torts, Defamation
Reputational harm is serious. It can have devastating impacts on the person whose reputation has...
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Female mining executive’s defamation claim against government employee allowed to proceed
Tuesday, November 15, 2022Stephen A. ThieleLitigationTorts, SLAPP, Defamation
Ontario and British Columbia are the only two common law provinces that have anti-SLAPP legislation. This legislation permits the early dismissal of claims that...
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75-day house arrest ordered for contempt in a defamation case
Wednesday, November 2, 2022Stephen A. ThieleLitigationTorts, Contempt of Court, Defamation
In a previous blog dated June 30, 2022, my colleague James Cook wrote about the award granted to a university instructor who was defamed on Twitter by ...
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Statutory immunity and qualified privilege protect City Councillor against night club’s action
Friday, July 29, 2022Stephen A. ThieleLitigationPolitical Law, Torts, Municipal Councillors, Qualified Privilege
In the past few months, I have written a number of blogs about court decisions involving City Councillors. The courts and other processes...
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Losing an anti-SLAPP motion can be costly for a plaintiff
Thursday, July 14, 2022Stephen A. ThieleLitigationCosts, Defamation, Torts, Anti-SLAPP
The issue of costs is important for parties to take into consideration when litigating a case. Presumptively, winning parties are entitled to...
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Toronto City Councillor knocks out defamation action
Monday, July 4, 2022Stephen A. ThieleLitigationDefamation, Anti-SLAPP Legislation, Torts
Although politicians continue to be targets of defamation actions, politicians also continue to knock them out under Ontario’s anti-SLAPP...
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City politicians succeed in getting defamation claim against them dismissed
Friday, June 10, 2022Stephen A. ThieleLitigationDefamation, Torts, Anti-SLAPP
Politics can be a rough profession, particularly where the issues being debated attract diametrically opposed views. Some social issues often bleed into...
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Could full indemnity costs become the norm in defamation actions?
Monday, May 9, 2022Stephen A. ThieleLitigationCosts, Torts
As the use of social media platforms continues to grow, there is a correspondingly growing danger that the misuse of these platforms can cause devastating damage to ...
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Defamation basics and pre-trial disposition motions
Monday, January 24, 2022Stephen A. ThieleLitigationDefamation, Torts, Pre-trial Disposition
We have written a lot about defamation cases on this blog and the pre-trial disposition of defamation actions under...
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Watchdog’s defamation action against municipality allowed to continue
Monday, January 17, 2022Stephen A. ThieleLitigationPolitical Law, Torts, SLAPP
The law of defamation in the political arena has a long history. Passionate sparring between political opponents and the tendency to attack an opponent’s policies and character has
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Ford wins again! Court of Appeal for Ontario upholds dismissal of defamation action against him
Friday, November 26, 2021Stephen A. Thiele, Alexander Melfi, Gavin J. Tighe, K.C.LitigationDefamation, Torts, SLAPP
Section 137.1 of the Courts of Justice Act (the “CJA”) has made it harder for a plaintiff to maintain a defamation action against a defendant where the issue related to the expression involves a matter of...
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Lawyer wins $500,000 in defamation action
Thursday, October 28, 2021Stephen A. ThieleLitigationDefamation, Damages, Torts
Damage awards in a defamation case can be significant. This is especially the case where...
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Defamer gets 18 month jail sentence for contempt of court
Thursday, October 21, 2021Stephen A. ThieleLitigationDefamation, Torts, Remedies, Contempt of Court
In the law of defamation, we only tend to think about the damages that are awarded for a person’s loss of reputation or the intellectual analysis conducted by...
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Court Refuses To Dismiss Claims That Did Not Engage SLAPP Provisions
Wednesday, September 1, 2021Stephen A. ThieleLitigationTorts, Defamation, SLAPP
Section 137.1 of the Courts of Justice Act (the “CJA”), which permits the dismissal of actions related to an expression made with respect to a matter of public interest, continues to...
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Plaintiff Suffers Blow: Punch to Face in Amateur Ice Hockey Game Found to be Not Reasonably Foreseeable
Thursday, July 22, 2021Stephen A. Thiele, James R.G. Cook, Michael LauricellaLitigationHockey, Sports Law, Torts
Ice hockey is governed by rules which penalize certain physical infractions, including cross-checking, fighting, hitting from behind, and...
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Litigant Misses the Cut in Lawsuit After Being Hit in the Head by a Golf Ball
Wednesday, June 9, 2021Stephen A. ThieleLitigationSports, Torts, Negligence, Golf, Sports Law
Spectating a live sporting event is typically an enjoyable experience. Whether in the arena watching a hockey game or on the course taking in a round of golf, there is a general entertainment value that comes with...
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Summary judgment denied over defamatory TV show first aired in Pakistan
Tuesday, May 25, 2021Stephen A. ThieleLitigationTorts, Defamation, Summary Judgment, libel, slander
Ontario’s Rules of Civil Procedure provide that where there is no genuine issue requiring a trial, summary judgment shall be granted. It has been determined by Ontario courts that this rule is...
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$500,000 in damages awarded for comments about yellow Ferrari’s ownership
Friday, May 14, 2021Stephen A. ThieleLitigationDefamation, Damages, Torts
Cars are a tremendous invention. Historically, among other things, cars changed the way that people travelled and reduced significantly the travel time between destinations. Cars are certainly very popular and...
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Injunction granted to stop defamatory posts published on Instagram
Friday, April 30, 2021Stephen A. ThieleLitigationDefamation, Torts, Injunction
Social media is a great tool for, among other things, the promotion of personal or business interests, or connecting with like-minded individuals. It provides a window to...
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Gratuitous Defamatory Tweets About Plaintiff Not Protected as a Matter of Public Interest
Monday, April 5, 2021Stephen A. ThieleLitigationTorts, Defamation, SLAPP, Pre-trial Disposition
The internet and social media have spawned much civil litigation in the area of defamation. There is no cost to obtaining a Twitter account, for example, and to “tweeting” out a...
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Internet Harassment Tort Recognized by Ontario Superior Court of Justice
Monday, February 1, 2021James R.G. CookLitigationDefamation, Harassment, Torts, Cyber-stalking
Cyber-stalking and anonymous malicious postings on the internet, which may be disseminated across a variety of sites and platforms across the world, are issues to which the...
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Limitation period avoided: Claims of republication of libel by third party allowed to be added action because stories were on internet
Monday, February 1, 2021Stephen A. ThieleLitigationTorts, Defamation, Republication, Limitation Periods
Across the country, limitation periods have been enacted to regulate the time in which an action can be commenced. Defendants are entitled to finality, and...
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Defamation suit surrounding BC’s foreign buyer tax is dismissed
Monday, January 25, 2021Stephen A. ThieleLitigationTorts, Funds, Defences
The law of defamation is fascinating because the fact scenarios of each case are unique. Where matters of public interest are involved, people are prone to express opinions about the...
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