Commercial Litigation and Dispute Resolution Blog

The SCC updates the law on qualified privilege and malice, holding lawyers to higher standards when making alleged defamatory statements.

In its first of two companion decisions on anti-SLAPP suit motions, the Supreme Court of Canada in Pointes Protection confirmed the test to be applied (as set out in our first blog here).

In Bent v Platnick, 2020 SCC 23 the SCC applied that ...

More often than not, sequels can’t live up to the original.  Case in point: Jaws 2.  But this blog post sequel aims to be better, like The Dark Knight.

In Part I of this blog post, we looked at the basic facts of Weaver v. Ball. The case involved two well-known scholars, Dr. Andrew Weaver and Dr. Timothy Ball, who have diametrically opposing viewpoints regarding climate change. In ...

Everyone is entitled to their own opinions.

Most of us were taught this maxim at an early age. But while the fundamental principle behind this saying holds true today, the reality is a little more complicated, especially with current technology. Now, with a single cellphone, practically anyone can publish their opinions online for the entire world to see. This has led to the ...

Negative reviews posted on websites such as Better Business Bureau, Yelp, Glassdoor, and Facebook can be devastating to companies, and perhaps even fatal to small businesses and sole practitioners who rely on goodwill and word of mouth recommendations. Although the ill effects of a single negative review may be mitigated in cases where it is outweighed by positive ...

Publication (communication of defamatory material to someone other than the plaintiff) is an essential element in a defamation claim. In the recent decision in Malak v Hanna, 2019 BCCA 106 (“Malak”) the British Columbia Court of Appeal confirmed that merely sending a hyperlink to defamatory material does not constitute publication.  

In Malak, the plaintiff and his ...

The B.C. Supreme Court recently dismissed the plaintiffs’ claims in Northwest Organics, Limited Partnership v Roest, 2018 BCSC 866, a defamation action relating to a commercial composting facility. The claim arose after years of conflict between residents of a rural community who opposed construction of the facility and the facility’s owners. The residents had ...

In 2012, the B.C. Supreme Court dismissed a defamation claim over a corporate news release that provided general information about the intended response to a lawsuit.  The case was dismissed on the grounds that news releases issued by public companies to report on litigation brought against them are published on occasions of either absolute or qualified privilege.  As such ...

Are submissions, evidence and statements made in a regulatory proceeding subject to the same protection of absolute privilege that applies in a court? Not always; it depends on the proceeding.

In Wilson v Williams, 2013 BCCA 471, the court held that absolute privilege did not apply to statements made in letters submitted by persons who had registered as interveners in a ...

This post was submitted by Lawson Lundell guest author, Toby Kruger.

On May 10, 2012, Marko Vesely and Toby Kruger appeared at the Supreme Court of Canada on behalf of the British Columbia Civil Liberties Association (“BCCLA”) in A.B. by her Litigation Guardian, C.D., v Bragg Communications.

In this case, a 15 year-old girl (A.B.) in Nova Scotia became aware of a Fake ...

The internet is a wonderful thing.  It provides instant access to a universe of information on nearly endless subjects.  It is a worldwide forum for the exchange of content and ideas.  Anyone with access to a computer can opine on anything or anybody.  Frequently, commentators stray across the line and post defamatory content, often because they think their conduct anonymous.  ...