An Ontario Superior Court judge has dismissed a $30 million libel lawsuit accusing several Toronto politicians, journalists and local media of calling the owner and publisher of an Italian-language newspaper a homophobic, transphobic and anti-LGBTQ+.
The lawsuit was filed in April 2021 by Joseph Volpe, the publisher of Corriere Canadese, and MTEC Consultants, owner of the newspaper. Volpe served as the Liberal MP for the Toronto riding of Eglinton-Lawrence from 1988 to 2011 and held two positions in Paul Martin’s government.
The lawsuit named two Toronto city councilors, Kristyn Wong-Tam and Paul Ainslie. Four administrators from the Toronto Catholic District School Board (TCDSB), journalists Elizabeth Di Filippo and Enzo DiMatteo, as well as Yahoo Media Group, Freshdaily and Media Central Corporation, were also named.
Judge Benjamin Glustein found that certain statements made by the politicians were defamatory and tarnished the reputations of the plaintiffs. But he said there was “no evidence that the advisers or administrators were motivated by malice”.
The lawsuit was “an attempt by the plaintiffs to chill the speech of elected officials who choose to speak out,” Glustein wrote in her ruling.
The plaintiffs’ attorney said Glustein erred in his decision and his clients would appeal.
Councilman’s motion sparked a lawsuit
Plaintiffs sued Wong-Tam after she filed a motion with City Council in early 2021 calling several Corriere Canadese articles “homophobic and transphobic”, and spoke about it at a press conference . The motion directed staff to tell complainants to sign and abide by Toronto’s policies on human rights and anti-harassment and discrimination or the city would not buy ads in the newspaper.
Ainslie was named in the lawsuit because he supported the motion and TCDSB administrators Maria Rizzo, Norm Di Pasquale, Markus de Domenico and Ida li Preti were named because they wrote a letter in support.
They were reacting to Corriere Canadese articles with headlines such as: “Time to put sexualized thugs signaling virtue in their place” and “TCDSB website hosts pornographic site defended by trustees”, which mentioned the inclusion of a link to LGBT YouthLine, a website offering LGBTQ youth resources and peer support, on the TCDSB website.
“Somehow [Volpe] turned around and said he was the victim, when the only one who consistently launched attacks was him through his newspaper,” Wong-Tam, now an MPP, told CBC News.
In his written ruling, Glustein said “qualified privilege” protects officials’ statements about “matters of public interest.” Councilors and administrators believed the plaintiffs’ written words were homophobic and the outlet routinely received public money through city ad placement, he wrote.
Glustein said the plaintiffs “used language that they knew would draw criticism of them as being homophobic, transphobic and anti-LGBTQ2S+.” The judge also found that the media and reporters named in the lawsuit covered matters of public interest and that the reporters had been diligent.
Glustein dismissed the case granting what is called an anti-SLAPP motion, meaning he agreed with the defendants that the plaintiffs had filed what is called a “strategic lawsuit against the involvement of the audience”. The Ontario government passed anti-SLAPP legislation in 2015 to prevent plaintiffs from silencing critics by filing costly and time-consuming lawsuits against them that are without merit.
“It would have been chilling”
CBC News spoke with three of the defendants in the case, who said they feel vindicated.
“It was my job to stand up specifically and to stand up when I needed to, to speak on behalf of the community we represent, and in this case, I represent one of the largest LGBTQ communities in Canada” , Wong-Tam said.
Rizzo said she had felt stress and anxiety related to the case for the past two years. She said she doesn’t like to think about what would have happened if the judge hadn’t ruled in favor of the defendants.
“It would have been chilling… I would have to guess, third guess and fourth guess myself in a public meeting room what I said… If [Glustein] had gone the other way, it would have actually silenced a lot of us.”
De Domenico said he wouldn’t change anything he did.
“We just sent a letter of support to a councilman for a motion, so it’s not a very drastic thing to do, frankly,” he said.
De Domenico said he believed paying special attention to protecting marginalized students was part of the message of Christ and an important part of his job as a TCDSB administrator.
“A whole lot of problems” with the judgment, says a lawyer
But Paul Slansky, the attorney for Volpe and the company that owns Corriere Canadese, told CBC News his clients are appealing the decision.
“There are a whole bunch of issues with this judgment. And we’re hoping the Court of Appeal will sort that out,” he said.
He maintained that his clients are not homophobic and instead the articles were “critical of the decisions and positions of some of the administrators of the Toronto Catholic District School Board for their positions” which, according to his clients, “did not protect or support the doctrine Roman Catholic on certain issues.”
He also said the constitutional arguments were largely ignored by the judge.
Slansky said the anti-SLAPP legislation is now “overturned”. He said that in this case it is used “as a primary means of silencing the press, as opposed to what it is designed to do, which is to prevent legal action being used to silence expression” .
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