2026 June 16

Flegal v. Dennis, 2026 ONSC 3532

The Ontario Superior Court of Justice awarded the plaintiff $25,000 general damages and $8,000 aggravated damages following an application for summary judgment.  A counterclaim was dismissed. The Court rejected defences of truth (justification), fair comment, responsible communication, qualified privilege, and statutory immunity.  The defamatory statement was made in a Facebook post which attacked the plaintiff and incorporated the full text of a newspaper article which named the plaintiff as the Executive Director of a society providing child protection services. The defendant Dennis’ post attracted numerous derogatory comments from the defendant’s supporters. The defendant selectively deleted other comments critical of himself.  The defamatory post attracted 641 public engagements, 339 comments and 59 shares.