2007 March 27

Bains v. Sidhu Singh Hamdard Trust, [2007] O.J. No. 1129

Alleged Cyber Libel: Website posting
Non-Internet Defamation Also Alleged: Yes – printed newspaper
Canadian court has jurisdiction? Not disputed
Canadian court should decline jurisdiction? No

The Ontario Superior Court of Justice held that it had jurisdiction to hear this case (as conceded by the defendants) and rejected the defence submissions that India was a more appropriate jurisdiction for the action. As a result, the defence motion to stay the Ontario litigation on forum conveniens grounds was dismissed.

The plaintiffs, who originally came from the Punjab and have lived in Canada since 1992, brought this libel litigation over an article relating to events which took place in India. The Court noted that although the print edition of the defendant newspaper “is directed to readers in India for the most part, the [newspaper’s] website is accessed by an approximate average of 8,000 readers per day in Canada, a significant portion of whom are in Ontario.”

In arriving at the conclusion that the action should be heard in Ontario, the Court noted that the plaintiffs had commenced defamation actions against three other newspapers distributed in Ontario and read by members of the Punjabi-speaking population which had reportedly published the same article or a version of it. The desirability of avoiding a multiplicity of proceedings was a factor which the court held weighed heavily in favour of the plaintiffs on this application.