Case information

Civil liability — Defamation — Municipal election — Mayoral candidate — Forwarding of email that allegedly defamed him — Damages claimed — Whether application for leave to appeal raises question of public importance.

Case summaries are prepared by the Office of the Registrar of the Supreme Court of Canada (Law Branch). Please note that summaries are not provided to the Judges of the Court. They are placed on the Court file and website for information purposes only.

This case originated in the context of the 2017 municipal election in Austin, Quebec. The applicant, a mayoral candidate, brought an action in defamation against the respondents, directors of associations who had forwarded to a limited number of people an email from the outgoing mayor containing comments about him. The Superior Court dismissed the application, finding that the directors had not committed any fault in forwarding the email in the circumstances. It took into account, among other things, their role in the associations, their knowledge of certain facts, the trust they placed in the mayor, the members’ interest in receiving the information, the limited distribution of the message and the election context. The Court of Appeal in turn dismissed the appeal, finding that no error warranted its intervention or justified varying the Superior Court’s decision.