2020 February 18

Pan v. Gao, 2020 BCCA 58, allowing an appeal from 2018 BCSC 2137

The British Columbia Court of Appeal allowed an appeal by the plaintiff from a lower court decision which awarded him only $1 nominal damages.  The lawsuit involved ten related articles on the Internet published by the defendant on the “WeChat” social media platform.  The trial judge found that only two of the articles contained defamatory statements and for which no defence was available. The Appeal Court ruled that the trial judge erred in finding certain other statements were not in fact defamatory, and that the trial judge erred in drawing adverse inferences about the plaintiff’s credibility and the impact of various statements.   The matter was remitted to the lower court to re-assess damages for statements the trial judge found defamatory; assess damages for statements the Appeal Court found defamatory and which the trial judge did not; and determine whether three of the defamatory imputations were protected by a  defence.