From The Globe and Mail:

The Ontario Court of Appeal made a landmark ruling that frees the news media to publish contentious allegations that benefit the public interest.

In a 3-0 ruling, the court yesterday said that it is high time for Canada to join other Commonwealth countries in recognizing that an individual's reputation cannot trump the public right to know - provided journalism is practised responsibly.

"The defence rests upon the broad principle that where a media defendant can show that it acted in accordance with the standards of responsible journalism in publishing a story that the public was entitled to hear, it has a defence, even if it got some of its facts wrong," Mr. Justice Robert Sharpe said. ...

Several media lawyers urged the court to create a public-interest defence that would bring an end to a chronic newsroom apprehension that has killed many a potentially important article over the years.

"This is a very important decision in terms of getting facts to the public," said Globe and Mail lawyer Peter Jacobsen, who helped argue the case.

He said that the decision ranks alongside a major freedom of expression case, known as Dagenais, which established the importance of press freedom under the Charter of Rights and Freedoms. "This is going to allow editors to be much more confident that, once they have jumped through all the hoops, they can publish," Mr. Jacobsen said.

Here's the ruling.