Veteran Toronto libel lawyer Julian Porter fears the Internet and human rights tribunals are making his craft unworkable.
After four decades of suing or defending prominent authors, journalists and businessmen entangled in some of Canada's most memorable libel cases, Mr. Porter warns that it is getting harder to defend reputations or preserve freedom of speech - rights honed over centuries of case law.
One culprit, he said, is quasi-judicial bodies such as human rights tribunals, which are operating far "beyond their jurisdiction."
When these agencies investigate slander and defamation charges, he argues, they operate outside the bounds of civil court procedure. Defendants cannot rely on traditional libel defences such as truth, fair comment or good intent.
At human rights hearings, he said, cases can be clogged with witnesses who are allowed to interpret how articles, such as that written by Mr. Steyn, perpetuate hatred.
"It becomes a zoo, it is utterly unworkable," he said.
A more insidious threat is the Internet, Mr. Porter argues. Anonymous websites and blogs are havens of defamation, slander and libel because their owners and authors are difficult to trace or hold accountable.
The result is a strange libel universe comprised of two worlds that play by very different sets of rules.
In traditional print and broadcast media, publishing and entertainment companies publish corrections or pay damages when courts find they have wrongfully damaged reputations. In what Mr. Porter calls the legal netherworld, websites, blogs and a variety of digital voices operate with virtual impunity. Many of the voices are difficult to trace. When they are revealed, most have slim financial resources to compensate defamed parties.
"The slander is out there on the Web and you can't put it back in a box," he said. "You don't know where the line is now. You don't have access to someone with money who cares or is responsible about what they say ... There just isn't anyone around who is accountable for the words," he said.
The Maclean's/CIC case has been a bit of a hobby horse for this blog to ride. Here's some final thoughts on that case (Porter is Maclean's lawyer):
After more than 40 years of practice, Mr. Porter dismisses any suggestion that he may soon retire. He is still preoccupied with a number of cases, including the human rights challenge faced by Maclean's in British Columbia. Although he wants the magazine to win, part of him wishes that the commission rules against his client so that he can appeal the case to the Supreme Court.
"If this matter goes upstairs, the court would find that the Human Rights Act is too broad and the commissions shouldn't be considering these type of cases," he said.