2011 November 7

Pierce v. Canjex Publishing Ltd., 2011 BCSC 1503

The British Columbia Supreme Court ordered the defendant website to disclose internet protocol addresses, names and any other identifier information concerning a registered user “halcrow” who had posted a comment that did not relate to the plaintiff. The Court accepted that a strong inference could be drawn that the user who commented on the defendant’s “Stockwatch” website under the name “halcrow” after the website began limiting comments to paid subscribers was the same “halcrow” who earlier posted defamatory comments about the plaintiff. Previous efforts to identify halcrow met a dead end when the Internet Service Provider could not provide subscriber logs.

Whether or not the Ontario Superior Court decision in York University v Bell Canada Enterprises (2005), 99 O.R. (3d) 695 should be followed in BC did not matter. The BC Supreme Court was persuaded the petitioner Pierce had a prima facie case of defamation. The Court was satisfied the plaintiff should not be required to first resort to “unnecessary and potentially very costly methods such as hiring private investigators when the information may in fact be readily available from Canjex Publishing Ltd.”