2017 September 21

Gendreau c Fondation Corazon du Quebec, 2017 QCCQ 11230

The Quebec Court (Civil Chamber) awarded the plaintiff Gendreau defamation damages of $1,000 and punitive damages of $500 against the individual defendant whocreated the Foundation, over over a Facebook post which was online for only 17 hours and was removed before the plaintiff complained about it.  The plaintiff was also awarded $500 defamation damages and $200 punitive damages against the other individual co-defendant and against the Foundation over another Facebook post.  With respect to a counterclaim, one of the individual defendants and the Foundation were awarded $4000 defamation damages and $1000 punitive damages against the plaintiffGendreau and another individual plaintiff  over a comment posted to the Huffington Post Quebec Facebook page.  The Court noted the large circle of diffusion of the Huffington Post Facebook page and the fact that the defamatory post appeared from December 2016 to February 7, 2017.