What is the standard for determining whether a statement or document is defamatory?

British Columbia, Canada


The following excerpt is from Hanisch v. Canada, 2003 BCSC 1000 (CanLII):

In determining whether a statement or document is defamatory, the court must decide “whether the words in their ordinary signification… would… tend to lower the plaintiff in the estimation of right thinking members of society generally”. In other words, “could perusal of that communication tend to lower the plaintiff in the estimation of the right-thinking peruser who knows nothing of the circumstances but what he or she derives from [in this case, the article] itself?” (Sim v. Stretch, [1936] 2 All E.R. 1237 (H.L.) at p. 1240). Thus the standard is objective and is that of right-thinking persons generally.

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