Véronique Roy comments on a Court of Appeal decision on the distinction between defamatory statements and democratic debate

In a case comment published by Éditions Yvon Blais last July, lawyer Véronique Roy summarizes and comments on the Quebec Court of Appeal’s decision in Séguin v. Pelletier, in which the Court confirms once again that making a defamatory statement does not necessarily constitute an actionable fault.

Courts must exercise caution before characterizing statements made in the course of a democratic debate as faults generative of damages. In this instance the Court of Appeal took the Superior Court to task for having taken sides with the plaintiff in a context where the parties had been facing off in the political arena.

To read the article, which is only available in French, click here.