What is the burden on a defence pleading justification for defamatory words?
Ontario, Canada
The following excerpt is from Hamlin v. Kavanagh, 2019 ONSC 5552 (CanLII):
The plaintiff submits that the burden on a defendant pleading justification is to prove the substantial truth of the “sting”, or main thrust, of the defamatory words. The plaintiff submits that the sting of the words includes the express defamatory meaning of the words and any implication that is found to have been a correct defamatory meaning of them. See Platnick v. Bent, 2018 ONCA 687 at para. 58.
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