2013 April 18

Taylor v. Lamon, 2013 SKQB 144

The Saskatchewan Court of Queen’s Bench dismissed all claims and counterclaims for defamation which arose from the involvement of all parties in a national trade union which represented inside workers employed by the City of Saskatoon. The counterclaims related, in part, to: (i) an email sent on August 11, 2000 to members of the union local; (ii) an email sent on August 23, 2000 to union members and to nine other people unknown to the sender whose names appear on the national union’s website; and (iii) an email sent on October 11, 2000 to union members including grievance committee members. The Court concluded that none of the emails were defamatory, in some instances because the statements fell within the “rough and tumble” of union politics and business; in other instances because the readers would have considered the source of the remarks – the email’s author – to be “confrontational, aggressive, angry and of uncertain reliability in terms of relating circumstances.” “Because of the confrontational, antagonistic and agitated nature of the email, the reasonable reader would have concluded that any comments in it could not be taken at face value.” In the alternative, the Court found that each of the emails was published on an occasion of qualified privilege.