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ARTICLE · 07 MARCH 2022

Claim For Defamatory Tweets Dismissed

Gardiner Roberts LLP
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Can one who freely wades into the choppy waters of Twitter complain about getting splashed? So asked the Ontario Superior Court of Justice in a recent case involving allegedly defamatory tweets...

CanadaLitigation, Mediation & Arbitration
James R.G. Cook
James R.G. Cook
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Can one who freely wades into the choppy waters of Twitter complain about getting splashed? So asked the Ontario Superior Court of Justice in a recent case involving allegedly defamatory tweets and re-tweets: Mondal v. Evans-Bitten, 2022 ONSC 809 (CanLII). The decision shows that social media commentary on matters of public interest may be protected from defamation claims.

The individual plaintiff was the owner of a medical imaging and diagnostic clinic in Guelph, Ontario. He was an active Twitter user and commented on a variety of social and political matters.

At issue were several messages sent out on the plaintiff's corporate Twitter account that the defendants understood to be homophobic and transphobic. One tweet at issue contained a photograph of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau waving a flag that combined a Canadian maple leaf emblem with a rainbow flag. This tweet was accompanied by the plaintiff's commentary stating, amongst other things, "do not defile

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