[Section 15] One of Crookes' lawsuits dismissed

Wayne Crookes' lawsuit against Yahoo has been dismissed. You may recall that I am a defendant in one of his cases.

Michael Geist covered it the other day, and now CBC has it up on their website.

I have the actual ruling.

Now, Crookes has many lawsuits out there, and this is just a section of one of them, albeit one of the more significant.

What the judge found, in granting a motion by Yahoo, was that there was no evidence that a third party in BC actually saw any of the material Crookes claims to be libelous. In making this positive ruling, the judge recognized that the Yahoo group in question (GPC-Members) was a closed, private group, the contents of which are not visible to non-members. As such, without evidence that a BC-based subscriber read the material, Crookes had no case to bring the suit in BC.

What else I found interesting was something else the judge had to say, in section 16. You'll need to read some sections beforehand to get the gist:

[12] On August 4, 2006, Mr. Crookes emailed Yahoo about three postings on the GPC-Members website that defamed him and demanded that Yahoo remove these postings. That same day, following an exchange of emails and Mr. Crookes providing Yahoo with the necessary, detailed information required by Yahoo to deal with Mr. Crookes' concerns, a copy of the full headers and the message, Yahoo removed the postings. Yahoo asked Mr. Crookes to notify it of any further questionable content he found in Yahoo! Groups. Mr. Crookes was satisfied with Yahoo's prompt response and thanked Yahoo for its assistance.

[13] The statement of claim alleges that later in August 2006 the impugned postings were reposted with other allegedly defamatory material. Instead of following his previously successful method of complaint by email, Mr. Crookes claims that on December 8, 2006, he had his lawyer send a "legal letter" by fax and courier addressed to "Sir/Madam" at Yahoo! Inc. Mr. Crookes' counsel complained that Mr. Crookes "has not received your ongoing diligence in making certain that this website does not either repost the libellous comments or post equally venomous remarks". Mr. Crookes' counsel requested Yahoo "shut down this site and in its place, post an apology for the libellous comments made about him, which the moderators have, to date either reposted, ignored, and sometimes even republished with commentary". The letter did not provide the information that Yahoo had previously told Mr. Crookes it needed in order to take steps to deal with questionable material; that is, a copy of the full headers and the impugned messages.

[14] A receipt of confirmation was requested in the letter. There was no receipt of confirmation. No effort was made by Mr. Crookes or his lawyer to ascertain if Yahoo received the letter.

[15] Yahoo claims it has been unable to locate this letter in its correspondence records. In addition, no effort was made to ascertain the appropriate individual, or even the appropriate department, who should receive such a letter. No effort was made to correspond with Yahoo by email, as Mr. Crookes had done, successfully, in the past. Instead of following up with Yahoo, Mr. Crookes commenced this action against Yahoo on March 2, 2007.

[16] Plaintiffs' counsel argues knowledge can be imputed to Yahoo based on counsel's letter which was faxed, and then couriered and signed for by "K. Kerins". However, the manner in which counsel contacted Yahoo, having regard to Mr. Crookes' prior email contact with Yahoo, which was successful in having the impugned postings removed efficiently, raises suspicions and concerns.

We'll see if he appeals. He has less than 30 days now to do so.

I'll save my further comments until after that deadline.

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Posted By Mark Francis to Section 15 at 9/07/2007 10:45:00 PM

[Section 15] Iraqi government is in collapse

The world's most expensive and bloodiest experiment in imposed democracy is on the skids, says a formal Congressional Research Report, secured by Raw Story from the Daily News.

The original report is here: (PDF).

"My assessment is that because of the number and breadth of parties boycotting the cabinet, the Iraqi government is in essential collapse," Kenneth Katzman, the author of the report, said, according to Meek. "That argues against any real prospects for political reconciliation."

(Meek wrote the piece for the Daily News.)

Without a secure political climate, any military successes will not last. Which is not to say that the report is critical of the idea that there are currently any military successes.

Bush got his way, and he has failed.

*Worst. President. Ever.*

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Posted By Mark Francis to Section 15 at 9/07/2007 12:33:00 PM

[Section 15] CBC host libel chill story on their site

CBC had the libel chill news story (starring moi among others) removed from YouTube (but left thousands of other CBC videos there); however, the piece has now been posted on CBC's site.

See http://www.cbc.ca/national/blog/video/crimejustice/bloggers_beware.html

Geist's public complaint about it seems to have been noticed.

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Posted By Mark Francis to Section 15 at 9/05/2007 09:29:00 PM

[Section 15] How our libel law allowed the torture of children

Ontario's Grenville Christian College was a place where children were "emotionally, spiritually and sometimes physically [abused]" says a piece in today's Globe and Mail:

Joan Childs, who worked at the school for more than 30 years, posted a public apology on an Internet message board that former students have been using for more than a year to talk about what they experienced and suffered.

"What was done to people at GCC was very wrong," Ms. Childs wrote. "I was very wrong. And I am so sorry for all the hurt that was caused to each of you by me and by all of us in positions of leadership."

Former students have described a bizarre environment where they were hauled from their beds in the middle of the night to be harangued for hours by staff at so-called light sessions about being sinners.

Read the piece for more info.

What really caught my eye was a related piece, Brockville's local paper was advised not to publish abuse allegations which shockingly tells us that the local Brockville newspaper knew of these abuses, and had a story ready to print about it 20 years ago, but pulled back when witnesses suddenly retracted permission to use their names. At the exact same time, the newspaper received a letter from a major Toronto law firm threatening libel action if the article was printed.

So the story was never published.

Our libel laws place the burden of proof on the defendant, and assume that any defamation causes damage. The plaintiff merely has to claim that the published allegations are false, and it's up to the defendant to prove otherwise. Without the people willing to come forward -- and one wonders given the timing of things if there wasn't a connection between the witnesses withdrawing and the libel chill letter arriving -- the paper had little choice but to not publish.

And so the abuse went on for years more.

Many other Western jurisdictions have since reformed these ancient laws to properly place the onus upon the plaintiff, and to require proof of damage. All, except Canada, have reformed libel law to grant special protection for those commenting on matters of public interest. Some jurisdictions, like California and 23 other US states, have anti-SLAPP (Strategic Lawsuits Against Public Participation) provisions allowing for vexatious or nuisance libel lawsuits to be easily thrown out and the plaintiffs penalized.

Quebec is currently considering updating their Code of Civil Procedure to penalize those launching anti-SLAPP suits (see here). New Brunswick and Nova Scotia are currently considering such laws as well. (I will be writing about all this soon enough).

Had such protection been around 20 years ago, would the abuse have continued? Would the witnesses have been less afraid to come forward?

Anti-SLAPP provisions need to be in place in every province in Canada.

Many defendants, including myself, are currently fighting libel claims filed in British Columbia by Wayne Crookes. You can read more about it here, and visit LibelChill.ca (still under development) for more.

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Posted By Mark Francis to Section 15 at 9/01/2007 03:35:00 PM