On August 10th, the Ontario Superior Court of Justice dismissed a privacy claim brought against the publishers of The Lawyer’s Weekly for reporting on the plaintiff’s involvement in a small claims court proceeding. The Court adopted the following defendant submission:

Further, recent developments in the common law regarding invasion of privacy have fallen well short of the cause of action asserted by Bresnark. On the facts of this case, there is no ‘intrusion upon seclusion’, nor even any disclosure of ‘private facts’. Indeed, the Article is wholly based on public court proceedings and the facts and findings disclosed on the record in those cases. Therefore, the cause of action asserted in paragraph 4 of the statement of claim should be struck as disclosing no cause of action. It is plain and obvious that it has no chance of success.

The Court also dismissed a defamation claim as statute-barred.

Bresnark v Thomson Reuters Canada Limited, 2016 ONSC 5105 (CanLII).