What is the fair comment defence?
British Columbia, Canada
The following excerpt is from Mainstream Canada v. Staniford, 2012 BCSC 1433 (CanLII):
Even where a court concludes that a defendant was actuated by express malice, a fair comment defence will not be defeated unless the court also concludes that the defendant’s dominant purpose in publishing the material in issue was to injure the plaintiff because of spite or ill-will. An example is found in the trial judgment in WIC, reported as Simpson v. Mair, 2004 BCSC 754, 31 B.C.L.R. (4th) 285.
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