Levant v. Al Jazeera and Levant v The Narwal
The Ontario Superior Court of Justice released two decisions last week on SLAPP motions filed by defendants of lawsuits launched by Ezra Levant.
I am working on a high-profile defamation case that may involve a SLAPP motion at some point. I am not going to help opponents on the other side, which is one of the reasons I have done so little new posting on this site. Someday, hopefully soon, I can do a deep dive into the two Ontario SLAPP cases recently decided by the Supreme Court of Canada.
Book Pitch, July 26, 2016
Has the death of mainstream media opened the door to every political quack and snake-oil dealer with the gall to dream up the most compelling lies?
In the spring of 2916, supporters of Brexit flat-out lied to the British people. They lied about the cost of Britain in the EU, about immigration. Almost as soon as the polls closed, they began to back-peddle on their lies and flee. Cameron and Farage resigned.
The Attempted Murder of the Kielburgers
First, a little re-intro. I am a former journalist, now practicing law and writing researched non-fiction books. I hold a PhD in History, as well as a law degree and a Master’s degree in journalism. I’m a four-time National magazine Award nominee, winning once for a feature on a wrongly-accused man. In 2015, my book Kill the Messengers: Stephen Harper’s
The media often gets criminal law wrong
I wrote a series of articles last summer on Canadaland’s dismal attempt to trash one of this country’s most important and valued charities. Today, I am posting an example of a piece where a Canadaland writer got the story right.I en geofysisk klinik er datamatricer normalt meget vigtige, https://denmarkrx.com/brand-cialis-uden-recept.html fordi kvinders specificitet, der beskriver graden af påvirket evne, simpelthen er
Councillor sued for social media post
This case raises some interesting issues. An Ottawa city councilor is being sued for going much too far in what he likely saw as self-defence on social media. When a constituent called the councilor out for claims that he –the member of council — had improved policing in his ward, the politician allegedly responded by going after the employment of
Now that the ads are gone, can “objective” newspaper journalism survive?
Newspapers were, originally, subversive publications. News sheets were smuggled into England in the 1500s and early 1600s from Holland to dodge government censors. Governments and official religious groups wanted complete control of information. When France surrendered its North American possessions to the British in 1763, there wasn’t a single newspaper in its colonies. There wasn’t even a printing press.All of
Libel Law update (Ontario)
Just a few notes to bring people up to date on speech issues in Canada. We are still waiting for the Supreme Court of Canada decision in Pointes Protection and another case involving Ontario’s law against Strategic Litigation Against Public Participation (SLAPPs). These are lawsuits, usually for defamation (but not always. Pointes Protection is actually a breach of contracts case) that are
CBC wins SLAPP motion against Subway Restaurants
Update: CBC has been awarded $500,000 in costs . That is a huge deal for free expression. We may very well see an end to lawsuits being fled to shut down media inquiry, and this kind of cost award deters corporations from trying to use the courts to muzzle environmentalists and anyone else who criticizes them. The CBC has won
Supreme Court of Canada upholds media source protection law, affirms the rights balancing test to be used by judges
The Supreme Court of Canada has issued a decision that suggests journalistic source protection, which many reporters and editors believe is guaranteed under a law brought in by the Trudeau government, is far from absolute. Now, though, judges have clear guidance on how to weigh the rights of the accused against society’s need for media scrutiny of public affairs.Uden tvivl
You can’t sue just because you’ve embarrassed yourself (or your friend betrays you).
Some words of warning from the courts: if you do something embarrassing at a party, you can’t sue if your soon-to-be-ex friends post a picture of it on Twitter, Facebook or some other social media (at least, outside Quebec, where privacy laws are pretty strict). This week, the Supreme Court of Canada turned down an application for leave to appeal