2018 August 30

Able Translations Ltd. v. Express International Translations Inc.,  2018 ONCA 690, affirming the result in 2016 ONSC 6785

The Ontario Court of Appeal upheld the lower court decision (2016 ONSC 6785) which dismissed this action as a SLAPP pursuant to s. 137.1 of the Ontario Courts of Justice Act, RSO 1990, c. C.43.  The claims concerned posts on an Internet bulletin board which were removed within a week following a demand by the plaintiff’s lawyers.  The lower court decision held the bulletin board posts concerned the suitability of the defendant corporation’s owner to be elected as a Member of Parliament given his prior senior management position with the corporation.  “No one disputes that communications directed at a person’s suitability to hold elected office, particularly when made in the middle of an election campaign, are communications relating to a matter of public interest.”  The Court of Appeal held that because there were no grounds to believe that the defendant corporation (a competitor of the plaintiff) was connected to the allegedly defamatory posts, the lawsuit was devoid of merit.   The public interest in freedom of expression about the electoral process outweighed the harm to the plaintiff, given that the posts never reappeared, they were seen by a handful of people , and there was little (if any) evidence of their capacity to harm the plaintiff.