2016 February 22

Raymond v. Brauer, 2016 NSSC 50

The Nova Scotia Supreme Court determined the appropriate penalty for contempt arising from the defendant’s breach of an interim injunction in a defamation lawsuit prohibiting any publications about the plaintiff on the internet. The defendant’s “noncompliance with the injunction consisted not of publishing new stuff about [the plaintiff], but linking her new activist sites to a site which contained troublesome material about [the plaintiff] arising out of the many years of family litigation between [Mr. H] and [the plaintiff].” The Court concluded that the hyperlinking by the defendant could possibly have influenced the public from whom a civil jury would be selected to hear the defamation action. In this context, the Court concluded that the appropriate penalty for contempt was to strike the defendant’s jury notice, which it was entitled to do so by virtue of a Nova Scotia statute.