2010 August 13

Black v. Breeden, 2010 ONCA 547. Note: leave to appeal this decision to the Supreme Court of Canada was granted on December 16, 2010: 2010 CanLII 75965 (S.C.C.)

The Ontario Court of Appeal dismissed an appeal from the March 31, 2009 decision of the Ontario Superior Court which confirmed that Ontario has jurisdiction and is the appropriate and convenient forum for the plaintiff’s six defamation actions against directors, advisors and a Vice President of Hollinger International Inc. in relation to posting’s on Hollinger’s website.

Applying the test for jurisdiction in Van Breda v Village Resorts Limited (2010), 98 O.R. (3d) 721 (CA) [on appeal to the Supreme Court of Canada], the Ontario Court of Appeal rejected defence arguments that treating the place of the tort as the place in which the allegedly defamatory statements were accessed in not appropriate in the context of libel. The Court of Appeal held it did not need to decide whether the correct test (as alleged by the defence) was whether the defendant “targeted” the defamatory statements to the forum because the Court held that it was “clear on the record that there is evidence that the defendants did target and direct their statements to this jurisdiction.”

The Court of Appeal concluded that although the factual context of the claims involved significant connections to the United States, there was a real and substantial connection between the plaintiff Black’s claims and Ontario arising from the publication in Ontario and damage to Black’s reputation in Ontario. The Court of Appeal noted that Black’s claims were limited to damages to his reputation in Ontario. Even if an Ontario libel judgment favouring Black might be unenforceable in the United States, it would still have significant value to Black as a vindication of his Ontario reputation.