2017 May 12

Upper Canada District School Board v. Gilciq (c.o.b. Seaway Media), 2017 ONSC 2904

The Ontario Superior Court of Justice dismissed the plaintiff’s application for an interlocutory injunction to prohibit publication of two articles posted on the Internet on the basis of the stringent test for such injunctions in defamation cases.  See Canada (Human Rights Commission) v Canadian Liberty Net, [1998] 1 SCR 626.  The Court was unable to find, on the basis of the evidentiary record before it on the application, that a jury verdict in favour of the defendant at trial would be perverse.  “It is, however, a Pyrrhic victory for the defendant.  In the circumstances, having regard to the interests at stake, the plaintiffs are not foreclosed from returning the motion with a more fulsome (evidentiary) record.”