2018 October 23

Bellord v. Jolicoeur,  2018 QCCQ 8992

The Quebec Court recognized a final foreign judgment rendered by a Court in Hawaii on May 3, 2017, awarding a defamed plaintiff $34,285 damages against the defendant, a resident of the province of Quebec.  The lawsuit concerned statements made by the defendant on Facebook as well as a website called Cult Education Forum.  Although the defendant had been duly served with legal process, he failed to defend the lawsuit, alleging it would have represented significant costs to him and that he had no domicile in Hawaii nor any property there.  The Quebec Court rejected the defendant’s submission that because he wrote the defamatory remarks on his computer in Quebec, the Hawaiian Court did not have jurisdiction over the defamation claim.  The Quebec Court held that the plaintiff had suffered damage in Hawaii.  In  this connection, the Court said that the actionable wrong occurs when defamatory remarks are communicated to others, applying the decision of the Quebec Court of Appeal in St-Maurice insurance company c. Ethier, 1996 CanLII 6142.