2011 July 20

Morris v. Johnson, 2011 ONSC 3996

The Ontario Superior Court of Justice dismissed an application by the plaintiff, a former mayor, for an order compelling named to defendants to identify the anonymous “John Doe” defendants, applying the test for such relief described by the Ontario Divisional Court in Warman v Fournier, 2010 ONSC 2126. The postings at issue were published on a political forum website during the run-up to a general election in October at which the plaintiff was defeated in her bid for re-election.

The Court held that the plaintiff failed to establish a prima facie case because she had failed to set forth the specific words complained of as being defamatory. “The jurisprudence clearly establishes that in actions of libel … the precise words complained of are material and should be set forth with as much particularly as possible in the pleading itself, ideally verbatim, or at a minimum, with sufficient particularly to allow the defendant to respond.” In addition, the plaintiff failed to address a failure to provide notice of the specific defamatory words within the limitation period prescribed by s. 5 of the Ontario Libel and Slander Act and had not demonstrated that she had taken reasonable steps to identify the anonymous defendants.