The Ontario Superior Court of Justice has for the first time
imposed sanctions on a plaintiff for commencing an action found to
be a SLAPP case.
The acronym SLAPP stands for 'Strategic Litigation Against
Public Participation'. It refers to litigation without
substantial legal merit that is brought against citizens or groups
in order to silence their opposition to the plaintiff on matters of
public interest, and deter by example others who might voice
opposition to the plaintiff on public interest issues.
In Morris v. Johnson,1 the plaintiff was the
mayor of an Ontario town. She claimed she had been libelled by
anonymous postings on an Internet forum for speech on local
municipal politics. At the time of the postings the plaintiff was
engaged in a re-election campaign. The plaintiff sued two
individuals who she alleged were moderators of the website. She
proceeded against the named defendants on the basis that they had
either exercised control over the publication
