2023 July 31

Abdelkader v. Khalil, 2023 NSSC 245

The Supreme Court of Nova Scotia awarded the plaintiff, a senior official of a foreign state, $100,000 general damages, $50,000 aggravated damages and $25,000 punitive damages over serious false and defamatory statements including videos on YouTube, Telegram and Facebook plus posts to Facebook and Telegram.  The Court observed that “[t]he Internet has the extraordinary capacity to replicate the defamatory messages. The defamatory statements, then, have tremendous power to harm [the plaintiff’s] reputation.”  The defendant, a resident of Nova Scotia, was also permanently enjoined from publishing any further defamatory statements about the plaintiff.