2017 June 12

Enverga v. Balita Newspaper, 2017 ONSC 3500

The Ontario Superior Court of Justice sentenced the individual defendant and the two Balita defendants for their convictions for contempt of a libel injunction by publishing certain emails (see 2017 ONSC 1635).  Referring to Astley v Verdun, 2013 ONSC, affirmed 2014 ONCA 668, the Court noted that it is common for punishment for breach of an order to be fairly modest once the defendant has accepted the court’s authority and obeyed the order.  “Often an apology, a costs award, and small fine are seen as sufficient punishment once the defendant has complied with the order.”  In this case, the Court found that the individual defendant did not recognize or accept the court’s findings of wrongdoing and did not respect the orders of the court.  “It is hard to get much more willful than a public, malicious quest including a specific request for others to publish material that the defendants acknowledge they are enjoined from publishing.  It is hard to more flagrantly violate a court order and show disrespect for the court’s authority than doing soby publications in a popular community newspaper and on Facebook.  It is hard to find more risk that a breach is ongoing than when defendants say that they are on a quest that they will not give up.”  In the circumstances, each corporation was sentenced to pay a fine of $5,000.  The individual defendant, for the offence of criminal contempt of court, was sentenced to 21 days in a provincial jail.