What is the defence of qualified privilege in a defamation case?

The defence of qualified privilege is available where a defendant’s impugned statement was motivated by a duty. Qualified privilege applies to the occasion upon which the communication is made and not the communication itself. The information must be reasonably appropriate in the context of the circumstances. A privileged occasion is one where the person who makes a communication has an interest or a duty, legal, social or moral, to make it to the person to whom it is made, and the person to whom it is so made has a corresponding interest or duty to receive it. This reciprocity is essential. The rationale for the defence is that the interest sought to be protected by the statement is important enough to justify a limited immunity from an action for defamation. See Hill v. Church of Scientology of Toronto, 1995 CanLII 59 (SCC), [1995] 2 S.C.R. 1130 at paras. 146 and 150.