2015 September 15

Buck v. Morris, 2015 ONSC 5632

The Ontario Superior Court of Justice dismissed a defamation action brought by a Town Councillor over statements published by the Mayor and six other Town Councillors on the website of the Town of Aurora, in two local newspapers and at a Town Council meeting which was televised. One of the grounds of dismissal was the Court’s determination that the defendants’ publications were protected by the defence of qualified privilege. “In determining whether the publication of the Statement on the Town’s website exceeded the occasion of the privilege, I must consider whether this was an appropriate means of communication, being in mind that [the plaintiff’s] various blog entries that were critical of Town staff were also publications to the world at large.” “In this age of social media and the internet, where virtually everything published on the internet is available to anyone, I am satisfied that where, as in this case, the defendants have published a document, such as the Statement the Court has determined is the subject of qualified privilege, that privilege is not lost if a publication of the document is available on the internet where the publication is in response to something the plaintiff has equally made available on the internet.“