2017 January 11

Levy v. Journal de Montreal, 2016 QCCS 6528

The Superior Court of Quebec dismissed an application by a defamation plaintiff for a pre-trial injunction to require the defendant newspapers to remove articles from their internet website. The Court noted that the great majority of the public comments posted to the article were made on the first day it appeared online, and only one or two were made very shortly afterwards. Accordingly, the Court concluded the greater part of any damages had already been sustained. The Court also applied a strict test for pre-trial injunctions in defamation cases, citing Leblanc c Leduc, 2014 QCCS 2495, Champagne c. Collège d’enseignement général et professionnel de Jonquière, [1997] R.J.Q. 2395 (C.A.), and Prud’homme c. Rawdon (Municipalité de), 2010 QCCA 584. The Court held that the jurisdiction to grant an injunction must be exercised with great caution, only in rare and very clear cases, where the words are clearly defamatory, the prejudice is irreparable, and the defence of truth is clearly insupportable.