Prud’homme vs. Municipalité de Rawdon
Anne-Julie Perrault has shared with AdIDEM her summary and comments on a decision last March in the Quebec Court of Appeal overturning a number of injunctions and orders against a website and its users. The Court of Appeal held that the presence of some prima facie defamatory comments on a website did not justify ordering the entire website offline.


Responsible Communication Defense applied in an Ontario Jury Trial
David Helwig News Director of SooToday.com writes about a decision by the Ontario Superior Court of Justice to dismiss a libel claim against the same news website as well as the Sault Ste. Marie Police. ...


Ontario (Public Safety and Security) v. Criminal Lawyers Association
The failure to include a public interest override in respect of the law enforcement and solicitor-client exemptions does not violate s.2(b) of the Charter. In an unanimous decision co-written by the Chief Justice and Justice Abella, the Supreme Court held that "access to documents in government hands is constitutionally protected only where it is shown to be a necessary pre-condition of meaningful expression, does not encroach on protected privileges, and is compatible with the function of the institution concerned."


Toronto Star v Canada
The Supreme Court of Canada has upheld the constitutionality of the automatic bail hearing publication ban available to an accused on request. When the ban is sought by the accused, the judge has no discretion ...


Shavluk v. Green Party of Canada
The British Columbia Supreme Court applied the defence of Responsible Communication, again in a non-media context. In this case, the defence used it successfully. See also Hunter v. Chandler