2021 October 7

Lavallee et al v. Isak,  2021 ONSC 6661

The Ontario Superior Court of Justice awarded $100,000 general damages for defamation ($50,000 to each of the two individual plaintiffs) over posts by the defendant on Instagram and Twitter.  The posts misrepresented the context and content of a brief video involving the plaintiffs, who were fired from their employment and had offers of employment rescinded after the defamatory Instagram and Twitter posts were widely propagated on the Internet as well as in traditional media.  The Court held that the defendant was “’relentless’ in her campaign to have the [plaintiffs] fired from their positions.”   The Court found the defendant “appeared to take joy in the demise of other human beings” and that her online posts even lead to attempts to ruin the reputation of the plaintiffs’ mother and have the mother fired from her job.  “[T]he defendant’s use of her social media accounts gave her tremendous power to harm [the plaintiffs’] reputations.  Not only were her posts viewed up to 40,000 times, but the [defendant] increased her followers from 2,000 to 5,000 in a matter of days.”  “[The defendant] used a powerful medium to publish her defamatory remarks, she posted personal information, she refused to stop posting and she targeted family members.”  The Court ordered the defendant to take down all social media posts regarding the plaintiffs and permanently enjoined the defendant from publishing any defamatory remarks about the plaintiffs.