2022 May 17

Supel v. Cunningham, 2022 MBQB 96

The Court of Queen’s Bench of Manitoba awarded the plaintiff medical doctor $25,000 general damages, $10,000 aggravated damages and $10,000 punitive damages over Facebook posts in July, 2020 which constituted serious libels.  The Court noted that when other people re-posted the libels,  the defendant appeared to encourage it and posted the plaintiff’s Facebook account name so people could contact the plaintiff directly.  “I find [the defendant] enjoyed the online banter and mud-slinging of [the plaintiff] by people who followed and engaged in her social media postings.  Needless to say, given the knee-jerk and small-minded thinking process of many people jumping onto the fray, most comments were neither considered nor fair.”  The Court ordered the defendant to remove the defamatory posts from any social media site under her control including Facebook, Instagram and Twitter.