Is a union's communications with its membership and other publications in the labour relations context an occasion for qualified privilege?

Communications by a union with its membership and other publications in the labour relations context have been found to be occasions of qualified privilege: Masunda v. Johnson, 2001 BCCA 530.

However, qualified privilege is not absolute. It can be defeated if the plaintiff can show either: (a) that the dominant motive behind publishing the statement was actual or express malice (“malice in fact”); or (b) that the limits of the duty or interest giving rise to the privilege in the first place have been exceeded, in the sense that the statement went beyond what was germane and reasonably appropriate in the circumstances of the occasion. In other words, the statement went beyond the exigency of the occasion. See Atkinson at para. 46; and Hill v. Church of Scientology of Toronto, 1995 CanLII 59 (SCC), [1995] 2 S.C.R. 1130 at paras. 144-147 [Hill].