2011 February 25

Klein v. Camara, [2011] O.J. No. 1752, Court File 464/09

The Ontario Small Claims Court awarded the plaintiff $10,000 damages (the maximum in Small Claims) over defamatory accusations about his conduct as coach of a peewee baseball team. The defamatory accusations were contained in an email sent by the defendant parent to other parents and to officials. The email was also posted on the defendant’s website. The court held the email was part of a “campaign of character assassination” to have the plaintiff removed as coach. He did in fact resign. The Court said it would have awarded a larger sum, including aggravated damages, if monetary jurisdiction had been higher.