December 22, 2009
Grant v. Torstar
The Supreme Court of Canada has just given us the new defence of Responsible Communication on Matters of Public Interest...

September 15, 2009
Crookes v. Newton
Hyperlinks to defamatory material on other websites may expose website owners to liability in defamation...

June 27, 2008
WIC Radio Ltd. v. Simpson
The Supreme Court of Canada has reinvigorated the Fair Comment defence. In the process it overturned its own 1979 decision in Cherneskey v Armadale, so that media organizations can publish the opinions of others, without having to agree with those opinions themselves. Justice Binnie, on behalf of the seven member majority, made it clear that the traditional test for the defence does not include a requirement that a court must find "fairness" in the opinion or the person offering it. If the opinion could honestly be held, fairness is in the ear of the beholder. Oh, and Rafe Mair won. Unanimously.

November 13, 2007
Cusson v. Quan et al (Ottawa Citizen) and Barager
Earth-shattering or simply incremental change to Ontario's libel law... it depends on your perspective. Justice Sharpe, on behalf of the Ontario Court of Appeal reviewed recent libel developments around the world and Canada, and incorporated a new made-in-Canada Reynolds/Jameel "public interest responsible journalism" defence into our law. The “chill” from the traditional Canadian common law of defamation is gone, replaced by the "thrill" of publishing stories that journalists investigate and have "every reason to believe" are true, on matters “the public has a legitimate interest in hearing”.