Previous Headline
April 2008
Criticising an elected representative is politics. Defaming him leads to liability…
A citizen cannot discredit the honesty of an elected representative, without proof, out of concern for the public good. A South Shore resident has recently learned this, at his own expense. The Superior Court has ordered him to pay $40,000 in damages for raising doubts about the reputation of his ex-mayor.
The cause of the citizen’s anger: an agreement that he had read about in a local paper. The agreement in question between City hall and the city manager occurred when the city manager left his functions in 2003. In the citizen’s eyes, the amount spent was exaggerated.
Two years later, the mayor that signed this agreement was defeated in elections and is running again for office. The citizen decides to write a letter to the Minister of Municipal Affairs to ask that an inquiry be held on the agreement signed in the past. He wrote in his letter:
" …une odeur de copinage et de dilapidation devrait pousser votre ministère à enquêter sur la valeur réelle de cette entente qui ne peut être qualifiée de « légale » puisqu’il y a fort probablement malversation."
The citizen then sends a copy of his letter to a journalist who writes a story on the topic.
The inquiry lead by the Minister of Municipal Affairs found that the agreement was legal.
The ex-mayor- he didn’t win the elections- asked the citizen to apologize and to withdraw his statement. The citizen refused, leading to a trial in defamation.
What is defamation?
The reputation of a person is protected by law.
There is defamation when a person says, writes or reports information that unjustly affects the reputation of someone else. In this situation, the court can see a fault for which the person is liable. If this fault causes harm, the person will have to pay damages.
Sometimes, defamation is also treated as a crime that can lead to a sentence of up to 5 years in jail. An accusation of
defamatory libel can be brought against a person that purposely tarnishes the reputation of someone else by circulating information about her. For a civil suit, it is not necessary for the defamation to have been carried out on purpose.
Is it defamation even if I think that what I am saying is true?
Yes. There are many ways to defame a person, the most obvious example being when a person purposely invents a story to harm someone else.
It is also defamation if a person attacks someone else’s reputation by reporting false information that she believes to be true, but that she did not sufficiently verify.
She can even defame someone else by making known to the public certain information about that person that is true with the sole intent of tarnishing his reputation. Consider the case of a big newspaper that would reveal on its front page that the cousin of such or such a politician is in jail for murder. Let’s assume that the information is true. If the politician has nothing to do with the crime, associating his name with that of the criminal amounts to unjustly attacking his reputation.
