Overlawyered » free speech in Canada

Free speech and chilling effects roundup

Walter Olson — Mon, 28 Nov 2011 14:49:45 +0000

“Stamp Out Online Misogyny?” [Wendy Kaminer, Brendan O'Neill]
Jacob Mchangama of Danish think tank CEPOS on blasphemy laws and Islam-critical speech [Nov. 4 FedSoc., PDF]
Niall Ferguson to sue LRB scribe? “If he won’t apologise for calling me a racist, I will persecute him until he does” [Guardian; more, Atlantic Wire] New York judge quashes subpoena seeking to identify anonymous bloggers in rabbi-defamation suit [Paul Alan Levy]
“If bullying has gone down, how can it be a pandemic?” By broadening its definition to include such behaviors as “eye-rolling” and pointed non-invitation [Hans Bader/Examiner, Neal McCluskey/Cato]
“I strongly recommend an umbrella policy for all bloggers. Defending myself cost nearly $100,000, thankfully paid by insurance.” [@DianaHsieh]
Federal crime under CFAA to lie on the internet? [Kerr, more, yet more, Balko]
“Will Canada Repeal its Hate Speech Law?” [Peter Worthington, Frum Forum]

Tags: bullying, free speech, free speech in Canada, hate speech, libel slander and defamation, online speech

Free speech and chilling effects roundup is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

November 11 roundup

Walter Olson — Fri, 11 Nov 2011 11:56:20 +0000

Manhattan Institute’s “Trial Lawyers Inc.” series looks at cozy relations between state attorneys general and plaintiff’s bar [report, related featured discussion, Copland, Examiner] Report comes down hard on Ohio’s Richard Cordray, nominee to head CFPB [Copland, Gorodetski/PoL] Judge tosses Cordray suit against credit rating agencies [O'Brien/LNL, Krauss/American Thinker] Iowa Attorney General Tom Miller denounces report [IowaPolitics.com]
“The Tort of Internet Mobbing Is Perfect For Suing The Internet” [Popehat]
Canada faces challenge to hate speech law [Arthur Bright, Citizen Media Law] Do not put a frog down Her Majesty’s back at the county fair [Lowering the Bar]
“Markopolos eyes a fortune from BNY whistleblowing” [Felix Salmon] “Bounty hunters in Korea” and closer to home [Alex Tabarrok] “Developments in Whistleblower Laws: Advantage Whistleblower” [Larry Wood & Richard William Diaz, Federalist Society "Engage"]
As third party liability for crime anecdotes go, the case of Bonilla v. Motel 6 is on the lurid side [Point of Law]
Prospect of cyberwar: official U.S. response is commando lawyering [Stewart Baker, Foreign Policy]
Why it’s hard to stimulate manufacturing through product liability reform in one state [Rick Esenberg]

Tags: attorneys general, free speech in Canada, Iowa, Manhattan Institute, Ohio, product liability, third party liability for crime, whistleblowers

November 11 roundup is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

“Supreme Court of Canada Stands Up for the Internet: No Liability for Linking”

Walter Olson — Thu, 20 Oct 2011 16:17:34 +0000

Sighs of relief after a decision in a defamation case (Crooks v. Newton) reported on earlier. [Michael Geist] Justice Abella:

I would conclude that a hyperlink, by itself, should never be seen as “publication” of the content to which it refers.

Adventurous litigants in U.S. defamation cases have occasionally argued otherwise. On Canada, see also proposals to criminalize links to so-called hate speech.

Tags: Canada, free speech in Canada, hate speech, libel slander and defamation, online speech

“Supreme Court of Canada Stands Up for the Internet: No Liability for Linking” is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

October 4 roundup

Walter Olson — Tue, 04 Oct 2011 05:45:14 +0000

Mass torts specialists vs. vendor: “Prominent Plaintiffs’ Attorneys Ordered to Pay Up After Losing Breach of Contract Trial” [Above the Law]
“You’ll have to get it on the street” — NYC’s thriving black market in pesticides [NYT, more]
Benjamin Barton on his new book, “The Lawyer-Judge Bias” [Truth on the Market, earlier here, etc.]
Medicare will not press “secondary payer” liability clawback claims below $300 [Miller and Zois, PoL, NLJ]
Class action roundup: “Sleeper” Supreme Court case raises question of whether class action certification requires consumer harm [Fisher/Forbes] Important Easterbrook opinion in Aqua Dots case puts curbs on class certification [PoL, Fisher/Forbes, Beck] Frey, Mortenson et al.: “The non-fiction class action” [Trask, OUP blog; earlier here, etc.]
Free speech roundup: Canada proposal could criminalize linking to alleged hate speech [Hosting Industry Watch] More on Canadian denouncers of speechcrime [Ken at Popehat] You don’t say: “$60,000 Ruling Against Truthful Blogger Tests Limits of the First Amendment” [Citizen Media Law] What happens when a defamation plaintiff asks a court for a takedown order? [same] Argentina: subpoenas step up pressure on reporters, editors who report on economy [NYT via Walter Russell Mead]
Should the law punish energy companies whose operations kill birds? Depends on whose osprey is being gored [Perry]

Tags: class actions, free speech, free speech in Canada, hate speech, Medicare, NYC, oil industry, online speech, pesticides

October 4 roundup is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

“Mining giants bury Canadian critics with lawsuits”

Walter Olson — Sat, 26 Feb 2011 14:15:57 +0000

Barrick Gold and Banro Corporation have sued three authors of a book that alleged human rights violations in African mining operations; Barrick has also threatened suit against a Vancouver-based publisher over a not-yet-published book. [BoingBoing, Canadian Business, Quill and Quire; FreeSpeechAtRisk.ca]

Tags: Canada, free speech in Canada, libel slander and defamation

“Mining giants bury Canadian critics with lawsuits” is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

Lawsuits meant to silence critics

Walter Olson — Tue, 04 Jan 2011 15:50:40 +0000

Ontario is being urged to tackle the problem. “The thing about SLAPPs is they are very effective. They are so effective that you never hear about them, because, the whole thing about them is, they are trying to shut people up,” said an environmentalist who favors broader protection for speech. [The Globe and Mail]

Tags: Canada, free speech in Canada, libel slander and defamation

Lawsuits meant to silence critics is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

November 30 roundup

Walter Olson — Tue, 30 Nov 2010 16:25:07 +0000

Sooooo glad to be an American: that’s how Patrick at Popehat feels following latest Canadian-libel-law outrage directed at conservative blogger Ezra Levant (& see comments for alternate view);
Obama has pardoned more turkeys than people. Why? [Dan Froomkin, HuffPo]
“Reforming medical malpractice liability through contract” [Michael F. Cannon, Cato Institute working paper, PDF]
Memoir of jury foreman in criminal case [Tux Life]
Not too sharp: Massachusetts school district disavows policy of not letting students bring pencils to school [Slashdot]
State governors have big plans for liability reform. Maybe even loser-pays? [Carter at PoL, more; Florida, Indiana, Tennessee, Texas]
Parent who sent buzzworthy demand letter to Kansas City school board is a jazz musician [Wayward Blog, earlier]
From comic books to violent videogames: “Our puritanical progressives” [George Will]

Tags: free speech in Canada, freedom of contract, governors, juries, libel slander and defamation, loser pays, medical malpractice, schools, videogames

November 30 roundup is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

April 6 roundup

Walter Olson — Tue, 06 Apr 2010 05:06:50 +0000

“Trademark Infringement Suit by AAJ Against Another Trial Lawyer Group to Go to Trial” [Qualters, NLJ]
NPR covers SLAPP suits [On the Media]
Wi-fi, junk science, loser-pays and lawsuit lunacy [Popehat, Chicago Tribune, earlier here and here]
Metro-East Illinois attorney Rex Carr told to pay $635K in sanctions for bad faith suits against former partners [Belleville News-Democrat, St. Louis Post-Dispatch, Courthouse News]
Sheep with the bends: “Animal Rights Groups Getting Clever With the Law” [WSJ Law Blog]
Canada: “Comedian Charged With Human Rights Violation By Lesbian Insulted At Club” [Turley]
Princeton freshman sues after being denied extra time to complete test [Princeton Packet via Obscure Store]
Eric Turkewitz: why my April Fool’s prank wasn’t an ethical violation under NY rules [New York Personal Injury Law Blog] Update: Colin Samuels recounts the whole affair at Infamy or Praise.

Tags: AAJ, animal rights, cellphones, disability & schools, free speech in Canada, libel slander and defamation, Madison County

April 6 roundup is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

Canada’s Coulter climate

Walter Olson — Thu, 25 Mar 2010 05:02:38 +0000

“I was hoping for a fruit basket, not a threat to prosecute,” says controversialist Ann Coulter about the menacing letter she got from the provost of the University of Ottawa. [Big Government, Popehat, Legal Blog Watch, WSJ Law Blog] Part of Coulter’s Canadian tour was subsequently called off after security officials said they could not guarantee her safety from protesters. [Moynihan/Reason "Hit and Run"] More: Mark Steyn, Binks. The somewhat attenuated nature of Canada’s rights of free speech is a topic familiar to our readers.

Tags: colleges and universities, free speech in Canada, hate speech

Canada’s Coulter climate is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

The beginning of the end for speech control in Canada?

Walter Olson — Thu, 03 Sep 2009 04:14:16 +0000

A human rights tribunal has found Canada’s hate-speech law, or at least some applications of it, to be an unconstitutional infringement of free expression. [National Post] Mark Steyn hopes this portends an end to a dark chapter in the nation’s history, but the Western Standard’s Shotgun Blog cautions that the ruling is narrower than one might assume. More: Blazing Cat Fur.

Tags: free speech in Canada

The beginning of the end for speech control in Canada? is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system