The John Doe defendants who are alleged to have defamed Brian Burke (who has something to do with hockey, we understand) on an electronic message board went by rather colourful monikers, including Slobberface and Sir Psycho Sexy. Given that the defendants were unlikely to be traceable under those names in the white pages, Master McNaughton of the BC trial court has allowed service to be made on them using a feature on the message board which allows one user to send a private message to another: Burke v John Doe, 2013 BCSC 964. The decision builds on recent jurisprudence permitting service by Facebook and Twitter, which the learned master cites in her brief decision.
http://www.canlii.org/en/bc/bcsc/doc/2013/2013bcsc964/2013bcsc964.html
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