February 3rd, 2012
Costa Concordia: A Sea of Suits The RMS Titanic struck an iceberg on her maiden voyage from England to New York City. The ship sank on April 15, 1912. History repeated itself nearly 100 years later when the Costa Concordia hit a rock off the Coast of Italy and sunk on January 13, 2012. As [...]
October 27th, 2011
In September 2005, the Supreme Court of Canada (SCC) held that British Columbia’s Tobacco Damages and Health Care Costs Recovery Act (“CRA”) was constitutional in British Columbia v. Imperial Tobacco Canada Ltd., 2005 SCC 49. The CRA allows the provincial government to recover smoking-related healthcare costs from tobacco companies. In response to the decision, the tobacco [...]
October 23rd, 2011
On October 17, 2011, the Supreme Court of Canada released its landmark decision in Crookes v. Newton, 2011 SCC 47, affirming 2009 BCCA 392 and 2008 BCSC 1424. At issue was whether creating an internet hyperlink to defamatory material constitutes “publication” of the material for the purposes of defamation law. The case challenged the Court [...]
June 13th, 2011
On May 26, 2011, the international publication The Economist featured an article about moose in Canada. In particular, they focused on moose in Newfoundland and Labrador. These “lumbering giants” are wreaking havoc on the roads, resulting in over 700 collisions every year, many of which are fatal. Having no natural predators, their population has soared [...]
March 31st, 2011
Those who have seen Louis Theroux’s BBC documentary, The Most Hated Family in America, and wondered whether Westboro Baptist Church was inevitably headed for a lawsuit, were vindicated when Albert Snyder finally brought the infamous Phelps family to court after they protested at the funeral of his son. Marine Lance Corporal Matthew Snyder was killed [...]
March 2nd, 2011
The past year has been quite the roller coaster for libel and defamation cases here at TheCourt.ca. Our Senior Contributing Editor, Tiffany Wong, covered two crucial UK cases here and here, as well as the titillating “Officer Bubbles” story here. Just over a year ago, the Supreme Court of Canada (“SCC”) also released the landmark [...]
December 7th, 2010
Newspapers once again find themselves on the losing side of libel suits. On July 13, 2010, in Flood v. Times Newspaper Ltd. [2010] EWCA Civ 804 (“Flood”), the England and Wales Court of Appeal (Civil Division) (“EWCA”) overturned the trial decision and held that a newspaper was unable to claim qualified privilege for online reporting [...]
November 22nd, 2010
On September 22, 2010, Toronto Police Constable Adam Josephs launched a lawsuit in the Ontario Superior Court: Adam Josephs v. YouTube et. al (2010) CV-10-410890 (Ont. Sup. Ct.) (“Josephs v. YouTube”). In the suit, Constable Josephs sues video sharing website YouTube for $1.25 million. He seeks damages for defamation of his reputation and disclosure of [...]
October 11th, 2010
On April 7, 2010 the Ontario Court of Appeal (“OCA”) revisited the “thin skull” principle in Frazer v. Dr. Haukioja, 2010 ONCA 249 (“Haukioja”). The court decided issues related to medical professionalism after Grant Frazer took a vicious spill on his motorcycle and broke his ankle. The following action against his physician, Dr. Haukioja, resulted [...]
September 27th, 2010
Limits of journalistic press freedom for qualified-privilege and fair comment are hotly debated in jurisdictions around the world as courts try to balance the public interest in freedom of information with private reputational interests battling defamation. Last year, TheCourt covered Grant v. Torstar Corp., 2009 SCC 61 (“Torstar Corp.”), a decision that ranked as the top [...]
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