Posted on 01/29/2014 7:14:41 AM PST by conniew
By Andrew Duffy, OTTAWA CITIZEN January 28, 2014
OTTAWA — The online political forum, Free Dominion, has shut down after a wholesale defeat in a libel case brought by Ottawa human rights lawyer Richard Warman.
A jury concluded that Warman was maliciously defamed by four commentators on Free Dominion, a website that bills itself as “the voice of principled conservatism.”
Warman has been awarded more than $127,000 in general damages, aggravated damages, punitive damages and court costs because of 41 defamatory statements published on the conservative website in 2007.
Warman rose to prominence during the past decade by using the Canadian Human Rights Act to shut down the websites of people spreading hate speech; it made him the target of free speech advocates in the conservative blogosphere, and on websites such as Free Dominion.
In a recently released decision, Ontario Superior Court Justice Robert Smith granted Warman a permanent injunction that prohibits Free Dominion from ever repeating “in any manner whatsoever” any of the 41 defamations.
The website’s operators, Connie and Mark Fournier, of Kingston, this week shut down freedominion.ca, saying they could not control what comments other people posted.
“By leaving the forum open and allowing people to comment, we’d be opening ourselves to a contempt-of-court charge,” Connie Fournier said Tuesday.
“If someone repeated one of those comments, we would be in trouble — and could even go to jail.”
The Fourniers have operated the website as a “labour of love” for the past 13 years.
“It’s really sad to be at the point where we have to shut down the political forum,” she said. “But we’ve come to the point where it would be crazy for us to keep it open: it would be too much of a risk.”
They have vowed to appeal the defamation case and have launched a campaign on Indiegogo.com to raise money for their legal costs. The campaign has so far raised $2,800 of its $25,000 goal.
The Warman case is among the first to address at trial what constitutes defamation in the caustic political blogosphere. It adds to case law that suggests the Internet does not shield anonymous posters from legal action if they wrongfully attack someone’s reputation.
On his website, Warman said the case offers lessons for anyone involved in an Internet blog or forum. Chief among them, he said, is the idea that “If you make a mistake, admit it, repair the harm, and move on.”
Connie Fournier, however, said that if the case stands on appeal it will impair the once vibrant Canadian blogosphere.
“I think this is a terrible thing for free speech on the Internet,” she said. “When people who are allowing comments on their blogs and forums look at humongous costs and damage rulings like this, at injunctions that could put them in jail, they’re not going to want to take the risk of opening their site.”
The jury found that the four defendants — Roger Smith, Jason Bertucci, Connie and Mark Fournier — had been “malicious, high-handed and oppressive” in their conduct. Justice Smith also found the defendants had acted unreasonably by refusing to accept Warman’s offer to settle the case for $5,000 each.
Warman had to fight in court to obtain the identifies of those anonymous posters who had left defamatory comments on Free Dominion. The case dragged on for six years, culminating in a three-week trial before a six-person jury.
The Fourniers have never apologized or issued a retraction about the statements found to be defamatory.
© Copyright (c) The Ottawa Citizen
Correct. We would occasionally delete troll comments, spam, porn etc., but it was too busy for us to even read every post, let alone to vet them all.
Your in trouble now for posting that , but so am I ;) come and get me,,,,,
Thanks for the link.
It appears anonymous retributive commentary may be the only defense. This doesn’t seem honorable, but there is no acceptable alternative.
“An armed society is a polite society,” and this refers to pens as well as swords.
Yes, yes he can.
Good God Almighty! The world's truly great nations...the ones to which the world owes thanks for just about every recent advance toward decency and modernity (the US,Britain,Canada,Australia and a few others) are circling the toilet.Some are closer to the piping than others (perhaps Canada is a bit farther down than are we).I've just sent you folks an Alexander Hamilton for two reasons...
1) Because most Canadians are good people (even though they can't play hockey worth a damn).
2) Because the crippling virus that appears to have infected Canada is just a 5 minute trip across the Ambassador Bridge from reaching us.
The U.S. to my knowledge is the only country that has virtually absolute free speech. Thank G-d for the quirk of history that gave us that gift.
Thank you! :-)
We will do our best to fight this thing before it gets to you!
In theory, regular libel laws apply to internet postings, but:
1. Under the Communications Decency Act, the operator of a website who permits reader comments is not liable for those comments; in theory the commenter is, but it is difficult and expensive to uncover the identity of an anonymous commenter (although it has been done);
2. U.S. libel law is very defendant-friendly; only false statements of fact, not opinions, are actionable; truth is always a defense; and, if the plaintiff is a public figure, he must prove not only that the statements about him were false, but that the defendant knew they were false (or was at least reckless in saying them);
(3) Many, but not all, U.S. courts say that, if there is some doubt about whether a statement was a statement of fact or one of opinion, it weighs in the defendant's favor that the statement was made on the internet, where people expect a lot of hyperbole and exaggeration. (The Ninth Circuit's decision this month in Obsidian Finance v. Cox is a good example of that rule.)
The U.S. Supreme Court has shut down most of those lawsuits (see, e.g., Daimler v. Bauman decided by SCOTUS this month).
I'd not be surprised at all to see Canada allow suits against operators of American websites for allegedly libeling canadian citizens. It's not near as much of a stretch, since the internet extends to Canada.
No doubt that Canada can do that but, unless the American defendant has assets in Canada, it won't do the plaintiff any good. Under the SPEECH Act (passed unanimously by Congress in 2010 and signed into law by Obama), a foreign-court's libel judgment cannot be enforced in the United States unless the foreign country's libel laws are at least as protective of free speech as U.S. law.
I didn't know this!! I'm so glad to hear that! I'm going to read the case you cited above regarding hyperbole on the internet, too. I've been looking for something like that for another case we are involved in!
Interestingly cool. Thanks for the links and the ping.
Feel free to ping me to these anytime.
As a long time member of Free Dominion, and one of the original earliest members of Free Republic, I am very concerned with how this whole incident took place, and the danger it poses for our right to free speech under the Constitution. A right that is constantly under assault.
Stifling dissent (speech) is a Human Rights Violation in itself.
Didn’t this man, get censured at all for his behavior going on sites that can’t be named but named by Ezra Levant, and using many different user names posting words meant to incite and entrap, while he was employed by Canada’s Human Rights Division? IMHO, the Canadian Bar should have stripped him of his license. That practice of creating your own lawsuits, IMHO, is tantamount to fraud. Since he said things about himself (if i understand what Ezra said), he’s blown any type of defamation lawsuit and should not profit.
I used a US Google case on inline linking to win a copyright case against the same plaintiff in Federal Court a year ago or so. We were representing ourselves in that case.
Our courts need to see more American cases, IMO.
Both of you are now on the “no enter Canada” list. (i’m only half kidding :( )
Thanks for the ping/(post) back to this very important thread. Long time no see, backhoe (one of the great posters of all time). I hope you are doing well. It is VERY GOOD to see you.
In a sense, stifling of Free Speech is already here. This Administration has used the IRS to attack Conservative groups and while investigating themselves, the IRS was found to be innocent of abusing their power to attack Conservative groups in effect crippling their ability to function in ways Liberal tax-exempt groups do.
The IRS has been doing this to individuals who speak up against this Administration. Without any repercussions at all and Lois Lerner was allowed to plead the 5th and leave.
The hammer and sickle are already here.
Thanks for the ping. Scary to read the Democrats ‘10 completed goals from 1963’. Things we already are aware of but still startling to see in print.
Those are actually from the Communist goals on congressional record, apparently as excerpted from The Naked Communist
.
Could those offensive and defamatory comments be posted to a left-wing message board? I’d do it.
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