Lemire v. Burley, 2021 ONSC 5036
Nicole Biros-Bolton Jul 26, 2021
We were retained by the client after he had been sued for defamation by a City of Hamilton IT staffer who had publicly known connections to hate groups and white supremacist movements. Our client filed an anti-SLAPP motion, or strategic litigation against public participation, to have the case dismissed on the grounds that the issues he tweeted about were of public concern and were also very much in the public eye already. Justice Sheard of the Superior Court dismissed the libel action against our client, finding that this was a SLAPP suit. As a result, the court has ordered Mr. Lemire to pay legal costs associated with the suit.
You can read the decision in full here:
https://www.canlii.org/en/on/onsc/doc/2021/2021onsc5036/2021onsc5036.html?autocompleteStr=lemire%20v%20burle&autocompletePos=1