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 [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

In the spirit of increased collegiality and collaboration within the Canadian legal blogging community, LawisCool.com and TheCourt.ca have set aside their heated rivalry to bring you their first ever joint posting. What follows is a commentary on the interesting case of Piedra v. Copper Mesa Mining Corporation, 2010 ONSC 2421. Commentator for LawisCool.com: Omar Ha-Redeye, [...]

Ontario employers can rest easy as a result of the Ontario Court of Appeal’s recent decision in Piresferreira v. Ayotte, 2010 ONCA 384.  The appeal revisited the issue of an employer’s duty to protect an employee against mental suffering in the workplace. The Court of Appeal held that restricting an employee’s ability to hold an [...]

Last Wednesday, the Supreme Court of Canada (“SCC”) released its unanimous decision in Reference re Broome v. Prince Edward Island, 2010 SCC 11. I will not recite all of the facts in this case, as my colleague Daniel Del Gobbo articulated them fully in his analysis of the Court of Appeal’s decision. In short, the [...]

Considering putting a hyperlink on your website or blog? The case Crookes v. Newton, 2009 BCCA 392, may give you pause to reconsider. Although the British Columbia Court of Appeal held in Crookes that a website owner will not be liable for hyperlinking to defamatory sites, the decision left a number of unanswered questions that [...]

In 1992, a striking gold miner in the Northwest Territories (NWT) planted a bomb which killed nine replacement workers. The ensuing judicial saga, in which the widows of the murdered men sought compensation in tort from the security company guarding the mine, the union, and the territorial government branch responsible for mine safety, ultimately came [...]

The arduous judicial process for the families of victims of one of Canada’s worst mining disasters has finally ended. Last Thursday, the Supreme Court released reasons in Fullowka v. Pinkerton’s of Canada Ltd., 2010 SCC 5, concluding six years of civil litigation stemming from the fatal 1992 explosion at the Giant Mine near Yellowknife. The [...]