2014 April 24

R v. Kumar, 2014 ONSC 2516

The Ontario Superior Court of Justice dismissed an application by Hardev Kumar for an order compelling a justice of the peace to issue legal process charging Kumar’s nephew with defamatory libel under the Criminal Code of Canada. The Court noted that the essential elements of the criminal offence of defamatory libel include proof that the impugned statements were false and proof that the accused knew they were false. In this case, the Court held that the applicant had not tendered any evidence to the justice of the peace that what the nephew said was untrue or that the nephew knew it was untrue. The Court stated that “not every hurtful or derogatory statement about another person, even if false to the knowledge of the speaker, falls within the scope of s. 298 of the Criminal Code. Looked at objectively and in the circumstances described by the applicant, the statements complained of were not capable of being characterized as “likely to injury the reputation of the [applicant] by exposing him to hatred, contempt or ridicule.” “There was no evidence as to what it was the [the nephew] said to the police when he made a complaint about the applicant. Accordingly, there was no evidence that [the nephew] had made a false statement, let along one that he knew to be false.“