2015 December 22

Canadian Standards Assn. v. P.S. Knight Co, 2015 ONSC 7980

The Ontario Superior Court of Justice denied an application by the defendants to stay a defamation action brought by the plaintiff until completion of a Federal Court of Canada action by the same plaintiff for alleged breaches of the Trade-marks Act relating to publication of the same website alleged to be defamatory in the defamation action. The common law claim for defamation made in the Ontario Court could not be joined with the Trade-marks Act claim in Federal Court for jurisdictional reasons. The judge stated: “In my opinion, there is no unfairness in having the proceedings proceed in tandem. The defamation action has different substantive elements and different remedies available to [the plaintiff] assuming it were successful.“