Campaigns of Vilification and Defamation

• Author: David A. Potts; Erin Stoik
• Pages: 29-37

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Campaigns of Vilif‌ication and Defamation

Libel litigation, SLAPP law, and anti-SLAPP law fundamentally address the

tension between freedom of expression, protection from defamation and

misinformation, and the open discussion of matters related to public interest.

1704604 Ontario Ltd v Pointes Protection Association, 2020 SCC 22 per Côté J at para 2:

[2] Strategic lawsuits against public participation (“SLAPPs”) are a phenom-

enon used to describe exactly what the acronym refers to: lawsuits initiated

against individuals or organizations that speak out or take a position on an

issue of public interest. SLAPPs are generally initiated by plaintif‌fs who engage

the court process and use litigation not as a direct tool to vindicate a bona f‌ide

claim, but as an indirect tool to limit the expression of others. In a SLAPP, the

claim is merely a façade for the plaintif‌f, who is in fact manipulating the

judicial system in order to limit the ef‌fectiveness of the opposing party’s

speech and deter that party, or other potential interested parties, from

participating in public af‌fairs.

Of course, not all libel actions are SLAPP proceedings. At the other end of

the spectrum is the growing phenomenon of campaigns of defamation and

vilif‌ication by defendants. In such cases, the plaintif‌f has been subjected to

an attack using misinformation with the purpose of defaming them. Under-

standing the hallmarks of such a campaign is important to understanding

SLAPP and anti-SLAPP proceedings.

These cases will be discussed in some detail below; from a review of the

law and our own experience, however, these campaigns appear to have sev-

eral characteristics in common:

1. They involve the use of multiple platforms or technologies to attack the

plaintif‌f.