2022 June 24

Post v. Hillier, 2022 ONSC 3793

The Ontario Superior Court of Justice awarded the plaintiff English instructor $75,000 general and aggravated damages plus $10,000 punitive damages over false and defamatory tweets which were seen by thousands of the defendant’s followers.  The Court held the defendant “also used the #MeToo hashtag in some of the tweets, which made it more likely they would show up in search results.” The Court stated it was “particularly disturbed by [the defendant’s] repeated publication of [the plaintiff’s] wedding photos alongside her untrue and libellous statements, her use of tagging to disseminate her statements as widely as possible, and her leveraging personal information obtained in confidence from a former friend.”

The Court ordered the defendant to remove any content about the plaintiff on her social media accounts and permanently prohibited the defendant from communicating any further false, defamatory or disparaging statements about the plaintiff.  The Court also ordered the defendant to post a retraction on her Twitter account for 60 days, acknowledging that her posts about the plaintiff were false and defamatory, and providing a link to the Court’s decision on the Internet at CanLII.  The Court did not order the defendant to publish an apology, noting there was no point forcing the defendant to post a statement “expressing false regret and an insincere acknowledgement of the harm she [the defendant] has inflicted.” “Doing so may do more harm than good, as it could incite [the defendant’s] followers to hurl further invective at [the plaintiff].”  “As this whole episode shows, [the plaintiff] should not expect to obtain a rational or compassionate response from the Twitterverse.  Her vindication is this judgment and a retraction.”