2007 November 23

Warman v. Fromm and Canadian Association for Free Expression Inc., Ontario Court File No: 04-CV-26550SR

The Ontario Superior Court of Justice rejected the defence that libel claims arising from 5 of 9 website postings should be barred because the plaintiff failed to give written notice of intended action pursuant to s. 5 of the Ontario Libel and Slander Act which requires such notice in the case of broadcasts from a station within Ontario.

The Court held that the evidentiary record was insufficient to permit a finding whether publication on an internet website is a “broadcast” within the meaning of the Libel and Slander Act, noting that no radio broadcast was involved as was the case in Janssen-Ortho Inc. v Amgen Canada Inc., [2006] O.J. No. 2265. The Court also concluded that because the internet website was hosted on a server outside Canada, the defence could not in any event show that the broadcast was from a station within Ontario.