Freedom of speech win…
The country’s top court has absolved former Vancouver radio personality Rafe Mair of defamation for a commentary in which he made reference to the Ku Klux Klan and Adolf Hitler.The Supreme Court of Canada decision in the defamation suit also broadened a key defence often used by journalists to ward off libel actions. In a 9-0 judgment Friday, the Supreme Court of Canada ruled that Mair was engaging in fair comment in the 1999 radio editorial that was critical of Kari Simpson, a high-profile player in a campaign opposing the use of teaching materials about gay lifestyles in local schools.(…)“We live in a free country where people have as much right to express outrageous and ridiculous opinions as moderate ones.”
A key component of the fair comment defence has long been that the person making the comment must sincerely believe in it. In the course of the ruling, however, the high court modified that test.
Commentary must still have a factual basis, be made without malice and be in the public interest, said Binnie.
But the test of honest belief is not whether the specific person holding the opinion believed it. The yardstick is whether any person might honestly hold the view based on the facts at issue.
Binnie acknowledged that is “not a high threshold” for any defendant to met. But neither is it appropriate to rule out “a piece of devil’s advocacy” in any debate on a matter of public importance.
1999. It took 9 years to be absolved. Wow.
Will this have any bearing on Mark Steyn’s case before the HRC? Yeah, ten years from now, maybe…
Start filling in the paperwork, boy!