2018 May 2

Reva v Canadian Broadcasting Corporation/Radio-Canada, 2018 QCCS 1850

The Quebec Superior Court dismissed a motion by the defendant CBC for a pre-trial dismissal of this defamation action concerning two articles posted on the CBC website.  The Court held that the articles could be considered to be defamatory that the it could not be said the allegations of fault on the part of the CBC had no chance of success.  The court also declined to find that the lawsuit was a SLAPP, noting that the CBC is a Crown corporation with significant resources.  “The Court is … not prepared to conclude that the Plaintiffs are in a position to outlast the CBC or that the CBC is likely to back down because of a fear of this litigation.”