2019 January 14

Grochowski v. Young, 2019 ONSC 326

The Ontario Superior Court of Justice awarded the plaintiff emergency room doctor $12,500 general damages against the defendant (an emergency room patient) who posted a commentary to the plaintiff’s letter to the editor on a newspaper website.  The comments held to be defamatory were posted for approximately 4 days before being removed by the newspaper.  The court held, in determining that the commentary was defamatory, that the impugned statements  by the defendant were to be “considered in context to all of the overall statements made by the defendant in the online commentary.”