2020 August 17

Roy c. Corporation national de l’information independent, 2020 QCCS 2634

The Quebec Superior Court dismissed an application for a provisional interlocutory injunction prohibiting the defendant from publishing articles about the plaintiff on the Capitales Medias network, particularly on the Internet and in social media.   This ruling notes that prior Quebec decisions established the following rules for a pre-trial injunction: (a) great caution must be exercised in issuing such an injunction; (b) the injunction is only granted  in the most clear and rare circumstances; (c) the impugned expression must be clearly defamatory; (d) the damage must be irreparable; (e) the truth of the impugned expression must be impossible to prove.  In this case: the expression at issue was not obviously defamatory; irreparable harm was not shown by the plaintiff; and the plaintiff failed to show there was no possible defence.