Under Section 137.1 of the Courts of Justice Act,
defendants can move to dismiss proceedings against them that are
merely strategic lawsuits against public participation
("SLAPP" lawsuits). Enacted as part of
Ontario's Protection of Public Participation
Act in 2015, these "anti-SLAPP" motions were
intended to promote free expression and debate on matters of public
interest while discouraging the use of strategic (and costly)
litigation to suppress the same.1
In order to succeed on an anti-SLAPP motion, the defendant has
to first prove that the expression at issue relates to a matter of
public interest. Importantly, this is described as a
"threshold burden" that is supposed to be interpreted in
a "generous and expansive fashion"; what constitutes
"a matter of public interest" (on a balance of
probabilities) is supposed to be defined
broadly.2 Even if the expression is established as
a matter of public interest, the court will still not dismiss a
proceeding if the
