2006 March 31

Angle v. LaPierre, 2006 ABQB 198, affirmed 2008 ABCA 120

The Alberta Court of Queen’s Bench held that defamatory website criticism by the defendant parents targeted at several school principals, teachers and the teachers’ association was not protected by the defence of qualified privilege. The Court noted that the defence is “occasion specific” and that to succeed, the a defendant who pleaded qualified privilege had to prove that he or she was writing to discharge some public duty or interest and that “the persons to whom she [or he] …wrote had a corresponding duty or interest in hearing or reading those words.” In the case of the defamatory website postings, the Court concluded that such publications “to the world” went “beyond the bounds of reciprocity” and were not protected by qualified privilege. The Court rejected defence submissions that by sending “cease and desist” letters to defendants, the plaintiff teachers’ association s took essentially private disputes into the “broader public forum” such that the defendants were entitled to use that same forum for their publications. The Court noted that the association did not post the cease and desist letters on the Internet.