Facebook Comments Lead to Criminal Charges in Alberta
3 Comments
Recent Posts
A Standard That Doesn’t Exist: Parliamentary Secretary for Justice Offers Misleading Defence of Bill C-22’s Lower Threshold for Subscriber Information 
More Surveillance Demands to Come?: Government Admits Bill C-22’s Lawful Access Provisions Could Be Expanded 
Win, Lose or Draw?: The Federal Court of Appeal Overrules a Key Copyright Case on Procedural Grounds 
The Lawful Access Debate Begins: Canadians Should Pay Attention to What the Government Isn’t Saying 
The Global Battle for Data Control: How the 2026 U.S. Report on Trade Barriers Targets Data Sovereignty Worldwide
Still don’t get it
I’ve yet to hear a satisfactory explanation for why criminal libel is still an offence in Canada.
My guess – he criticized a cop.
Unnecessary, but tough point to argue
Like copyright law, libel/slander laws are actually unnecessary in that they resolve a problem which would likely resolve itself. In a world without libel/slander laws you’d have, by necessity, a society more critical of what they hear and one’s word would have it’s own reputation. The words of pathological badmouthers would eventually carry little or no creedence.
That being said libel/slander laws just need more check for abuse as even the threat of a trial, whether with merit or not, may silence someone who is speaking truthfully about wrongoing and such. These laws in their current form threaten open, honest, discourse and one’s right to warn their fellow citizens about scam artists and frauds.
Funny, you insult the wrong person, you could go to jail….
Yet have half a town libel in newsprint an innocent man as a murderer and the cops call it “gossip” and wipe their hands of it.