Karen Brownlee
Saskatchewan News Network
Monday, April 21, 2008
REGINA -- Linking one blog to another and allowing comments on her blog postings has landed one prominent Saskatchewan blogger in a legal quandary.
Kate McMillan of Small Dead Animals is one of several named as defendants in a statement of claim filed by Richard Warman with the Ontario Superior Court on April 7. Others include Ezra Levant, The National Post and one of its journalists, Jonathon Kay.
In the statement of claim, Warman alleges he was defamed on a blog known as freedominion.ca. He alleges those comments were linked to or commented upon on other blogs, including McMillan's and The National Post's.
Those who picked up on the original comments did not take steps to determine whether they were true, Warman alleges.
Warman also states it is not enough for a site to remove comments and postings that are questionable, as The National Post did. The newspaper pulled the piece written for its blog that Warman found defamatory.
In its place, the newspaper posted a retraction and apology. However, Warman alleges the article was linked to and copied by others online by that point and The National Post and Kay should be considered responsible for those republications. Editors for The National Post had no comment about the statement of claim.
McMillan is not surprised she has been named as a defendant. Warman has been active in the courts and other quasi-judicial hearings, she said. He has a track record of seeing complaints successfully litigated before the Canadian Human Rights Tribunal.
The allegedly defamatory comments first written about on freedominion.ca stem from what Warman says are incorrect statements made about him during a Canadian Human Rights Tribunal hearing, in which he was involved.
Warman has also brought action against at least one blogger in the past. The Ontario Superior Court ruled that blogger defamed Warman online.
The November 2007 decision states: "Given the instant and possibly global dissemination of messages over the Internet, the damage may continue for years.
"As Mr. Warman puts it, 'It is like an oil spill on the water of my reputation, I don't know how to put a stop to it.' "
McMillan hasn't changed how she blogs because of Warman's recent statement of claim. She doesn't comment much on her blog, but allows links to other sites and blogs as well as comments from her readers.
"I always thought I was running (my blog) responsibly in the first case," said McMillan. "The broader question this suit raises extends beyond the blogosphere into people's Facebook walls.
"If you can be held responsible for something one of your commenters links to, that basically puts everybody who's got a kid on Facebook in legal jeopardy."
If she is found responsible, she thinks more people will be anonymous online. She believes those who put their real names on their online writings are more accountable and trustworthy.
"That's the best protection that anybody has when dealing with a blogger," said McMillan. "It's the ones that hide behind anonymity that will . . . cross the line most often."
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