2025 February 24

Neufeld v. Bondar,  2025 BCCA 51

The British Columbia Court of Appeal dismissed an appeal by the defendant Neufeld from a trial judgment dated May 11, 2024 which awarded the plaintiff Bondar a “very modest” award of $35,000 general damages for defamation and a “relatively modest” award of $10,000 punitive damages.  The impugned expression consisted of words spoken by the defendant in September, 2022 during a Zoom interview hosted by “Action4Canada”.  The interview was subsequently posted online by “Action4Canada”.  Afterwards, the defendant sent a newsletter to approximately 800 people which quoted his interview words and included a screenshot of the plaintiff when she appeared in her own YouTube parody video posted in 2021.  Both parties to this lawsuit were candidates for re-election to a local school board when the expression found to be defamatory was published.  Defences of justification and fair comment were rejected, as were the defendant/appellant’s submission that the words complained of were not defamatory.