2020 March 13

Zwarych v. LaLonde, 2020 SKQB 68

The Saskatchewan Queen’s Bench awarded the plaintiff M, a police officer, general damages of $10,000 over a defamatory YouTube video posted on August 7, 2016 followed by a defamatory comment posted in September, 2016 after a take-down demand from M.  The Court noted that the YouTube video and comments were removed September 29, 2016, after the video had been viewed 1,387 times.  The Court declined to find that the defendant was motivated by actual malice, stating that what the defendant said in his YouTube postings “was a function or product of the mental illness he suffered from.”  The impact of the defamatory YouTube postings was also mitigated because the posts expressly stated that the defendant “is mentally ill” and “[t]his statement within the defamatory statements communicates to all viewers or readers that he is mentally ill and, thus, will necessarily operate to inform the readers that the statements made by [the defendant] are to be taken with a very significant degree of skepticism.”  Alleged defences of qualified privilege, fair comment and justification in relation to the YouTube postings were rejected by the Court.