Dear Colleagues:

 

Those with an interest in defamation and negligent interference with reputation might be interested in Roy v. Ottawa Capital Area Crime Stoppers 2018 ONSC 4207.  In Roy, the police posted a still image of the plaintiff from CCTV video on the Crime Stoppers website with text indicating that she had stolen a purse while walking through a shopping centre. In fact, the plaintiff had picked up the purse and left it with a public transit bus driver.  The plaintiff’s employer recognized her and suspended from her job. The defendant took the position that a trial was not necessary because neither action could succeed.

 

The judge held that both the defamation claim and the negligence claim against the police were allowed to proceed:  defences to defamation “required nuanced evidentiary evaluation and assessments of credibility” requiring a trial and there was authority, namely Young v. Bella, 2006 SCC 3, [2006] 1 SCR 108, indicating that “negligent publication leading to reputational damage and economic loss is actionable in Canada even if the words published would not meet the tests for defamation.” .

 

Happy reading,

 

 

 

Jason Neyers
Professor of Law
Faculty of Law
Western University
Law Building Rm 26
e. jneyers@uwo.ca
t. 519.661.2111 (x88435)