2012 September 25

Busseri v. John Doe, 2012 ONSC 5385

The Ontario Superior Court of Justice granted the plaintiff, the CEO of a publicly-traded corporation, a pre-trial injunction against the defendant “John Doe” aka B Prince (at a Yahoo email address) who did not appear in court although the Court found he had notice of the application. The Court noted that the defendant had responded to the plaintiff’s demands with emails to the effect: “Go F___yourself.” Commenting that the defendant “has done the opposite of expressing his intention to justify his words,” the judge held that the defendant’s posts to the “bullboard” about the plaintiff’s company on Stockwatch were clearly defamatory and designed to injure the plaintiff’s reputation. The evidence indicated they had been viewed over 500,000 times. Granting the application, the Court stated: “An injunction will not constrain Mr. Prince’s freedom of expression. What is being enjoined are defamatory posts. Public discussion of publicly traded corporations and their managers are rightfully and properly the subject of discussion on the Internet. Members of the public have every right to post and share their thoughts and opinions, but the invention of the Internet has not repealed the law of defamation.”