Teh One Who Knocks
03-03-2022, 11:54 AM
By Alyshah Hasham, Courts Reporter - Toronto Star
https://i.imgur.com/aPorXrAl.jpg
A Guelph man who tweeted on his company’s Twitter account an “offensive, derogatory slur” about transgender people, accused the prime minister of “defil(ing)” the national flag by waving a flag that combined a rainbow and maple leaf, and then sued community members for defamation for re-tweeting and sharing those tweets has had two lawsuits dismissed in court this week by an Ontario judge.
In a decision that describes Twitter as “a medium where outlandish criticism is the norm,” Superior Court Justice Edward Morgan found the defendants were engaging in fair comment by sharing the tweets with the local community as a form of “public service announcement,” including with those who might use the medical imaging service owned by Mondal, in particular members of the LGBTQ community, and who might choose to stop doing business with him as a result.
“There is nothing said by the Defendants that, in context, is harsher than, or is an overreaction to, the language of Mr. Mondal’s tweets themselves. What the communications in issue amount to is a set of polar opposite views on cultural politics, gender politics, and Politics with a capital ‘P’,” wrote Morgan, noting that a recent Court of Appeal decision came to a similar conclusion.
“Mr. Mondal jumped into the turbulent river of Twitter commentary with some vulgarly worded observations that touched a nerve with the Defendants. He got it back as good as he gave it, and got wet in the process.”
Morgan dismissed the lawsuit as strategic litigation against public participation (SLAAP), under a law intended to prevent the silencing or intimidation of a person’s right to free speech.
Lawyer Marcus McCann, who represented one set of defendants, Stephanie Marie Evans-Bitten and her wife Kathyrn Evans-Bitten, said the decision reinforces the ability of minority communities to call out or respond to offensive comments in public forums.
“I was concerned when I first saw this case that if it was allowed to proceed it could seriously restrict what queer and trans people say in public and on the internet,” McCann said. “If there was a threat of a lawsuit every time someone called out something they perceive to be hurtful or inappropriate in some way, you could see a lot less of that in the public sphere.”
Mondal’s lawyers did not respond to a request for comment Wednesday.
McCann said his clients were relieved not to be facing a $6 million lawsuit, which they had to crowdfund legal fees to defend.
In the decision, Morgan cited two tweets from Mondal among the messages “that the Defendants read and understood as being homophobic and transphobic.”
One included a photo of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau with a flag combining a rainbow with a maple leaf.
“That which he waves is NOT our national flag. Please do not defile our flag,” Mondal tweeted with the photo.
In another tweet referencing a news story about Mayor John Tory attending a drag show in in the Church-Wellesley Village Mondal wrote “Where’s the tr---y, @John Tory’s got some benjamins for your thong!!!”
Morgan noted that the “term for transgender individuals used in this tweet (which I will not repeat) has been recognized by Ontario’s Human Rights Tribunal as an offensive, derogatory slur.”
https://i.imgur.com/aPorXrAl.jpg
A Guelph man who tweeted on his company’s Twitter account an “offensive, derogatory slur” about transgender people, accused the prime minister of “defil(ing)” the national flag by waving a flag that combined a rainbow and maple leaf, and then sued community members for defamation for re-tweeting and sharing those tweets has had two lawsuits dismissed in court this week by an Ontario judge.
In a decision that describes Twitter as “a medium where outlandish criticism is the norm,” Superior Court Justice Edward Morgan found the defendants were engaging in fair comment by sharing the tweets with the local community as a form of “public service announcement,” including with those who might use the medical imaging service owned by Mondal, in particular members of the LGBTQ community, and who might choose to stop doing business with him as a result.
“There is nothing said by the Defendants that, in context, is harsher than, or is an overreaction to, the language of Mr. Mondal’s tweets themselves. What the communications in issue amount to is a set of polar opposite views on cultural politics, gender politics, and Politics with a capital ‘P’,” wrote Morgan, noting that a recent Court of Appeal decision came to a similar conclusion.
“Mr. Mondal jumped into the turbulent river of Twitter commentary with some vulgarly worded observations that touched a nerve with the Defendants. He got it back as good as he gave it, and got wet in the process.”
Morgan dismissed the lawsuit as strategic litigation against public participation (SLAAP), under a law intended to prevent the silencing or intimidation of a person’s right to free speech.
Lawyer Marcus McCann, who represented one set of defendants, Stephanie Marie Evans-Bitten and her wife Kathyrn Evans-Bitten, said the decision reinforces the ability of minority communities to call out or respond to offensive comments in public forums.
“I was concerned when I first saw this case that if it was allowed to proceed it could seriously restrict what queer and trans people say in public and on the internet,” McCann said. “If there was a threat of a lawsuit every time someone called out something they perceive to be hurtful or inappropriate in some way, you could see a lot less of that in the public sphere.”
Mondal’s lawyers did not respond to a request for comment Wednesday.
McCann said his clients were relieved not to be facing a $6 million lawsuit, which they had to crowdfund legal fees to defend.
In the decision, Morgan cited two tweets from Mondal among the messages “that the Defendants read and understood as being homophobic and transphobic.”
One included a photo of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau with a flag combining a rainbow with a maple leaf.
“That which he waves is NOT our national flag. Please do not defile our flag,” Mondal tweeted with the photo.
In another tweet referencing a news story about Mayor John Tory attending a drag show in in the Church-Wellesley Village Mondal wrote “Where’s the tr---y, @John Tory’s got some benjamins for your thong!!!”
Morgan noted that the “term for transgender individuals used in this tweet (which I will not repeat) has been recognized by Ontario’s Human Rights Tribunal as an offensive, derogatory slur.”