2014 February 19

Ironside v. Delazzari Estate, 2014 ONSC 999

The Ontario Superior Court of Justice awarded the plaintiff $50,000 general damages, $25,000 aggravated damages, and $10,000 punitive damages over defamatory statements posted to a webpage controlled by Delazzari (who was deceased at the time of this litigation). The libels remained on the Internet for approximately seven years and the defamatory website was only taken down after Delazzari passed away. The Court noted that “(p)otential customers who tried to access the plaintiff’s websites were automatically directed to one of [the defendant’s] websites” where the libels were published, and that the plaintiff’s business went into a “tail spin.” The Court held that the defamatory attack was a “‘deliberate and malicious act … done for the sole purpose of ruining the plaintiff’s reputation and business’ by employing ‘one of most powerful tools of communication ever invented … a medium of virtually limitless international defamation’ (See Barrick Gold Corp. v Lopehandia et al 2004, 71 O.R. (3d) 416 (Ont. C.A.) at para. 62).”