2013 March 1

Rubin v. Ross, 2013 SKCA 21

The Saskatchewan Court of Appeal held that the plaintiff, the director of a veterinary teaching hospital, was entitled to $100,000 general damages over defamatory statements made by the defendant union in: (i) notices posted on the eight hospital bulletin boards accessible to the public; (ii) an article in the defendant union’s newsletter which was mailed to 1400 members; and (iii) an article published in a Mini Bulletin on the union’s website. The article was not removed from the website until the plaintiff filed his lawsuit. The Court noted that the union website was open to the public “without any access code protections or other privacy protections.” The Court of Appeal held that it was “irrelevant that [the plaintiff] did not present any evidence to the Court to prove that anyone did in fact search the internet to find the communication.”