A Victory for Freer Expression Online in Canada

Off topic but important news:

The courageous Jon Newton and his excellent libel lawyer, Dan Burnett, have won an important victory in BC against Wayne Crookes. The Court held that the mere provision of a link to a defamatory third party website without a positive editorial comment on that material:

• does not lead to a presumption that persons read the contents of the website and used the hyperlink to access the defamatory words, and that
• reference to an article containing defamatory content without repetition of the comment itself or endorsement of it should not be found to be a republication of such defamatory content

Here's the judgment.

Essentially, the Court held that a link is much the same as a footnote, except a lot more convenient.

Congratulations to Messrs. Newton and Burnett.

HK