Legal Research

Defamation ? Liability for Linking

By John Gregory

The Supreme Court of Canada has granted leave to appeal to the plaintiff in the British Columbia case of Crookes v Newton 2009 BCCA 392.

The Court blog has a summary of the facts and of the appeal judgment.

Basically, the question is whether someone who posts a link to a defamatory publication has him/her/itself published a defamation. The BCCA held 2:1 that in some circumstances the link could be defamatory — but only if in context the poster of the link called particular attention to it and indicated agreement. The majority held (as had the trial court) that the defendant in this case had not done so. (The link was part of a blog entry about the plaintiff?s efforts to suppress someone else?s stories about him.)

The minority (Prowse JA) held that the defendant had done enough for his posting of the link to be defamatory in itself.

My tentative view is that Prowse JA is WAY too strict, and that linking would be extremely hazardous, whether or not one had any capacity to know whether the document to which one linked was defamatory.

Views, in anticipation of the SCC?s decision in a year or so?

Interesting, by the way, that the SCC gave leave with costs in the cause. Often in test cases where the parties have unequal resources, the respondent is not put at risk of costs even if the appeal succeeds. No such mercy for the blogger here. Does that make sense, or does it foreshadow a court that is unsympathetic to the blogger/linker on the merits?

Full post as published by Slaw.ca on April 01, 2010 (boomark / email).