What is the qualified privilege, if any, which protects communications that are in the interests of the general interests of society?
Alberta, Canada
The following excerpt is from Wagner v. Lim, 1994 CanLII 9013 (AB QB):
The qualified privilege is based not upon the interests of the person entitled to evoke it but upon the general interests of society and it only protects those communications fairly made in the legitimate defence of a person's own interests or plainly under a sense of duty such as would be recognized by "people of ordinary intelligence and moral principles": Halls v. Mitchell, 1928 CanLII 1 (SCC), [1928] 2 D.L.R. 97 (S.C.C.).
It will only apply if the defamatory statement can be said to be fairly warranted by any reasonable occasion or exigency: Halls v. Mitchell, supra.
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