Cases

SCC Case Information

Summary

33412

Wayne Crookes, et al. v. Jon Newton

(British Columbia) (Civil) (By Leave)

Keywords

Torts.

Summary

Case summaries are prepared by the Office of the Registrar of the Supreme Court of Canada (Law Branch) for information purposes only.

Torts - Intentional torts - Defamation - Internet hyperlinks - Publication - Whether author of website article can be presumed to have published defamatory article to which s/he has deliberately linked his/her website article - If not, circumstances under which it can be inferred that author has published hyperlinked defamatory article.

The Applicant Wayne Crookes alleges that he has been defamed in various articles which first appeared on the Internet in 2005. The Respondent, Jon Newton, owns and operates the website www.p2pnet.net. On July 18, 2006, he authored an article, headed "Free Speech in Canada", which hyperlinked one of the articles, as well as the website containing the other impugned articles. Those articles, in turn, were hyperlinked to one another. Mr. Crookes takes the position that, by creating these hyperlinks, or by refusing to remove the hyperlinks when advised of their defamatory character, Mr. Newton became a publisher of the impugned articles found at the hyperlinked websites. Mr. Crookes and his company, West Coast Title Search Ltd., brought an action against Mr. Newton for damages for defamation.