Ontario Superior Court, Morris v Johnson, 2011 ONSC 3996

This is another instance where the court applied the Warman factors (see above) to a case concerning online defamation. Here, the plaintiff brought an action against the host of a political blog and its moderators for defamatory comments posted by anonymous commenters. However, the application failed because the plaintiff could not demonstrate that the comments were defamatory and thus, could not establish a prima facie case. Therefore, interests in protecting the freedom of expression and users’ privacy rights outweighed the public benefits that may flow from granting the order.