What is the test for a defamer to be entitled to the privilege of defamation?
British Columbia, Canada
The following excerpt is from Urbanowski v. Harkins et al, 2006 BCSC 1741 (CanLII):
He then quoted from reasons of Lord Diplock in Horrocks v. Lowe, [1975] A.C. 135 at 150 (H.L.), as generally representative of the Canadian position: …what is required on the part of the defamer to entitle him to the protection of the privilege is positive belief in the truth of what he published or, as it is generally though tautologously termed, "honest belief". If he publishes untrue defamatory matter recklessly, without considering or caring whether it be true or not, he is in this, as in other branches of the law, treated as if he knew it to be false. But indifference to the truth of what he publishes is not to be equated with carelessness, impulsiveness or irrationality in arriving at a positive belief that it is true. . . But despite the imperfection of the mental process by which the belief is arrived at it may still be "honest", that is, a positive belief that the conclusions they have reached are true. The law demands no more.
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