Judicial Screening

AuthorDavid A. Potts; Erin Stoik
Pages84-92
84
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Judicial Screening
JUDICIAL DISCUSSION OF JUDICIAL SCREENING
Anti-SLAPP motions are a form of judicial triage or screening mechanism.
There is no explanation of this function in the legislation. However, the
Supreme Court of Canada and the Ontario Court of Appeal in Pointes have
discussed at length this aspect of anti-SLAPP motions.
1704604 Ontario Ltd v Pointes Protection Association, 2020 SCC 22 per Côté J at paras16
and 62:
[16] As indicated above, s. 137.1 is the provision in the CJA that is meant to
function as a mechanism to screen out lawsuits that unduly limit expres-
sion on matters of public interest through the identif‌ication and pre-trial
dismissal of such actions. The f‌inal statutory language adopted makes it clear
how the APR and the legislative debates informed the drafting of the provi-
sion: there is an invocation of the need for the expression to relate to a mat-
ter of public interest; the underlying proceeding must have substantial merit
(beyond “technical validity”, as the APR noted, at para. 37); and the public
interest in protecting the expression must be weighed against the public inter-
est in permitting the underlying proceeding to continue (echoing the import-
ance of balance repeatedly noted in the APR and the legislative debates).
. . .
[62] As I have often mentioned in these reasons, this provision is the core
of s. 137.1. The purpose of s. 137.1 is to function as a mechanism to screen out
lawsuits that unduly limit expression on matters of public interest through
the identif‌ication and pre-trial dismissal of such actions. While s. 137.1(4)(a)
directs a judge’s specif‌ic attention to the merit of the proceeding and the exist-
ence of a valid defence in order to ensure that the proceeding is meritorious,
s. 137.1(4)(b) open-endedly engages with the overarching concern that this

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