Law

Criminal libel probe of N.B. blogger questioned

Feb 08, 2012 - Posted by Dean Jobb

The Canadian Civil Liberties Association has asked Fredericton police for an explanation of why a local blogger, Charles LeBlanc, is being investigated under the little-used law of criminal libel. In a Feb. 1 letter, the group seeks an explanation of why LeBlanc, "apparently a vocal critic of the police force," had his computer seized during a search of his home. The group points out that courts in at least three provinces -- Ontario, Saskatchewan and Newfoundland and Labrador -- have struck down the Criminal Code's libel provisions as a violation of the constitutional guarantee of freedom of expression.

Read the CBC report, which includes the text of the letter.

Top court protects online links from libel claims

Oct 19, 2011 - Posted by Dean Jobb

Internet users who post hyperlinks to libellous material posted on other websites cannot be sued for repeating the libel, the Supreme Court of Canada has ruled. The Oct. 19 ruling in Crookes v. Newton protects one of the most basic functions of the Internet -- the ability of users to share links to material posted online, even material they have not fully reviewed and they may not agree with. The court recognized that simply posting a link to material that may be libellous is a far cry from publishing or repeating the libel, let alone endorsing what has been said in the linked post.

Read the ruling in Crookes v.Newton, 2011 SCC 47.

Read the Globe and Mail report.

Read CBC senior legal counsel Daniel Henry’s analysis of the ruling.

Court rulings dissect responsible communication defence

Sep 24, 2011 - Posted by Dean Jobb

It has been almost two years since the Supreme Court of Canada created the libel defence of responsible communication on matters of public interest -- long enough for at least three courts to weigh in on what journalists must do to meet its criteria. In this column in the upcoming issue of the CAJ's Media magazine, J-Source's law section editor Dean Jobb explores how the new defence is being interpreted.

Ruling relaxes libel rules for political bloggers

Sep 13, 2011 - Posted by Dean Jobb

An Ontario judge has tossed a libel action against three political bloggers, arguing that web-based political discussions are forums for “the parry and thrust” of vigorous debate and participants whose reputations have been attacked should fight back with words, not legal action.

What are the legal issues when retelling a potentially libelous life story?

Jan 18, 2011 - Posted by Dana Lacey

Q: I work in Kenora, where an elder has asked me to help her tell her life story. The parts about living off the land and descriptions of the culture are wonderful. The sections where she's talking about the abuse she suffered at the local residential school are trickier. She doesn't name names, but she does name the school. It'll also be possible to identify individuals in charge. The specifics make her story much more powerful, but she may end up with some legal issues. Any thoughts or advice? Answer by media lawyer Bert Bruser.

New wiki proposes elements of "responsible" journalism

Jan 11, 2011

What is "responsible" journalism? Celebrating the first anniversary of an epochal Canadian libel judgment that will see this question litigated for years to come, a group of graduate students has launched a wiki to help journalists themselves define their profession's best practices. Ryerson professors Brian MacLeod Rogers and Ivor Shapiro explain.

Court unmasks anonymous media site posters

Sep 20, 2010 - Posted by Dean Jobb

NEWS – In what may be the first case of its kind involving comments posted to a Canadian media website, the Halifax weekly The Coast has been ordered to identify seven people who made allegedly defamatory statements tagged to a story about racism in the city’s fire department. As well, Google was ordered to identify the holder of a gmail account who circulated an email that could be defamatory. "The court doesn't condone the conduct of anonymous Internet users," a Nova Scotia Supreme Court judge ruled April 14. The Coast and Google did not oppose the motion to produce the information. Read the reports in The Globe and Mail and Halifax's Chroncile Herald.

Ontario news website wins responsible journalism libel verdict

Sep 20, 2010 - Posted by Dean Jobb

News
The new responsible journalism defence has helped an Ontario news website defeat a libel action launched by a man named in a police fraud alert. In one of the first applications of the defence (created by the Supreme Court of Canada in 2009), a jury ruled SooToday.com acted responsibly when it published the alert, even though it contained erroneous information about a man with a criminal record for fraud.

The case shows that journalists must make serious efforts to verify a story before publication, in order for the defence to apply. SooToday, an independent web-only news outlet in Sault Ste. Marie, consulted more than 20 sources, commissioned an independent accounting analysis that cast doubt on the man’s investment scheme, and made efforts to locate him for comment.
Read the SooToday.com story on the case.

Jury uses new defence, dismisses libel suit against news site, police

Sep 14, 2010 - Posted by Dana Lacey

In one of the first uses of the new journalistic defence of responsible communication, the Ontario Superior Court of Justice has dismissed a multimillion-dollar libel suit brought forward by a former accountant against news site SooToday.com and the Sault Ste. Marie Police Service.

Libel and investigative journalism: if you're afraid, all is well

Apr 15, 2010

Bruce Page makes the case against calls to lessen the libel threat to journalism. A founder of the Insight team at the Sunday Times, Page writes in the British Journalism Review that there's nothing wrong with a journalist having to fear a libel action - in fact, that fear is a useful corrective against recklessness. Extracts:

"Sometimes a practising journalist wonders whether his or her current project is investigative. There’s a good practical answer: if you’re scared, it might be.If you’re not scared, not....

"Sadly the United States, which rarely grasps democratic principle quiteso firmly as orthodox imaginations fancy, has decided that in public discourse, untruth should have equal rights with truth....

"Investigative journalism – ignore for now the question of whether other kinds really exist – is intended to be harmful. And only being afraid gives you any moral justification for the practice. You at least incur some risk roughly related to that you seek to impose on your quarry. It is not a very sturdy justification, because a reporter’s work, if it’s genuine, consists of pushing into the unknown, with consequences obviously impossible to foresee. You may hope to do harm in order to do good, but the outcome can quite readily be only harm."

- Page, Bruce: "Libel: Fear should be the spur." British Journalism Review 21 (1), 2010.