What are the elements of a defamatory action?

British Columbia, Canada


The following excerpt is from Taseko Mines Limited v. Western Canada Wilderness Committee, 2016 BCSC 109 (CanLII):

A defamatory action has three elements that a plaintiff must prove in order to obtain judgment: a) the impugned words refer to the plaintiff; b) the impugned words were published, i.e. communicated to at least one person other than the plaintiff; and c) the words were defamatory in the sense that they would tend to lower the plaintiff’s reputation in the eyes of a reasonable person: [Grant v. Torstar Corp., 2009 SCC 61 at para. 28] [Torstar]

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