The Common Law of Defamation Fails to Enter the Age of the Charter

Authors

  • June Ross

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.29173/alr1065

Abstract

In this article the author criticizes the reluctance of the Courts to extend the influence of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms to the common law as it applies between private parties. The author explores the courts' application of the Charter to the common law, tracing the development of the jurisprudence through several cases, and goes on to offer an analysis of the implications of this judicial stance for the protection of freedom of expression in the context of defamation law. The author argues for a reassessment of the current law of defamation, and contends that the Charter's reach should extend to the common law of defamation.

Downloads

Issue

Vol 35, No 1: Special Issue: Honouring the Past, Serving the Future (The Faculty of Law's 75th Anniversary)

Section

Articles

License

For Editions following and including Volume 61 No. 1, the following applies.

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 License

For Editions prior to Volume 61 No. 1, the following applies.

Author(s) retain original copyright in the substantive content of the titled work, subject to the following rights that are granted indefinitely:

  1. Author(s) grant the Alberta Law Review permission to produce, publish, disseminate, and distribute the titled work in electronic format to online database services, including, but not limited to: LexisNexis, QuickLaw, HeinOnline, and EBSCO;
  2. Author(s) grant the Alberta Law Review permission to post the titled work on the Alberta Law Review website and/or related websites.
  3. Author(s) agree that the titled work may be used for educational or instructional purposes and/or in educational or instructional materials. The author(s) acknowledge that the titled work is subject to other such "fair dealing" provisions and applicable legislation.
  4. Author(s) grant a limited license to those accessing the titled work from an electronic database or an Alberta Law Review website to download the titled work onto their computer and to print a copy for their own personal, non-commercial use, subject to proper attribution.

To use the journal's content elsewhere, permission must be obtained from the author(s) and the Alberta Law Review.