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The Halton Herald [1] is a nonprofit newsgroup in Halton Hills, Ontario. The group, composed of volunteers, promotes itself as Halton's only independent news source. It accepts no government funding or private advertisements to maintain its reports.
The Halton Herald received national notoriety [2] when an Ontario Superior Court judge dismissed a civil action claim launched by The Town of Halton Hills. The Town had attempted to sue The Halton Herald's chief administrator, Al Kirouac, in an attempt to censor the nonprofit group's ability to publish critical reports on the town's administrators and its political board members' activities. [3]
The Halton Herald had published a series of stories regarding the injudicious conduct of Halton Hills Council, as well as publicly criticizing the discriminatory practices of a number of the town's senior administrators.
A Freedom of Information application disclosed that the then Town Chief Administrator, C.A.O. Bob Austin,[ citation needed ] and Mayor Bonnette [4] sought legal advice from a Town Solicitor who advised council that they could sue the Herald's Chief Administrator, Al Kirouac, for defamation. The Herald's Committee voted to challenge the action, to defend journalists' right to criticize governments without fear of reprisal or threat of litigation.
Ryder Gilliland [5] asserted in a motion to the Ontario Supreme Court, Halton Hills (Town) v. Kirouac, [2006] O.J. No. 1473(Sup.Ct.):
Ontario Supreme Court Justice J. Corbett agreed, ordering in his Disposition that "the claim of the Town of Halton Hills be dismissed".
The Ontario Supreme Court went on to cite, Halton Hills (Town) v. Kirouac, [2006] O.J. No. 1473(Sup.Ct.):
Lexpert.ca "GOVERNMENT BODIES CANNOT SUE FOR DEFAMATION"
Minutes of the Town of Halton Hills Council Meeting held on Monday, September 18, 2006, at 7:05 p.m. in the Town's Council Chamber, section 15-H of the minutes reflected the true sentiments of the community; Councillor M. Davis [ permanent dead link ] of the Town of Halton Hills advised that citizens have approached him regarding bullying on this Council and referred to an article titled "Why are bullies admired?". Councillor Davis believes that members of Council need to set an example as this is not an arena. Councillor Davis suggested that the Mayor should discourage this type of behaviour, and read several quotes from the newspaper article such as "the sad truth about bullying is that it achieves your aim to dominate", "they’re more popular than the victims", Councillor Davis also read the following except the decision issued by Justice David Corbett in the Town of Halton Hills vs. Kirouac, "The government may not imprison, or fine, or sue those who criticize it...litigation is a form of force, and the government must not silence the critics by force."
A class action, also known as a class-action lawsuit, class suit, or representative action, is a type of lawsuit where one of the parties is a group of people who are represented collectively by a member or members of that group. The class action originated in the United States and is still predominantly a U.S. phenomenon, but Canada, as well as several European countries with civil law, have made changes in recent years to allow consumer organizations to bring claims on behalf of consumers.
A strategic lawsuit against public participation (SLAPP) is a lawsuit intended to censor, intimidate, and silence critics by burdening them with the cost of a legal defense until they abandon their criticism or opposition.
Georgetown is a community in the town of Halton Hills, Ontario, Canada and is part of the Regional Municipality of Halton. The town includes several small villages or settlements such as Norval, Limehouse, Stewarttown and Glen Williams near Georgetown and another large population centre, Acton. In 2016, the population of Georgetown was 42,123. It sits on the banks of the Credit River, approximately 60 km west of Toronto, and is part of the Greater Toronto Area. Georgetown was named after entrepreneur George Kennedy who settled in the area in 1821 and built several mills and other businesses.
Halton Hills is a town in the Regional Municipality of Halton, located in the northwestern end of the Greater Toronto Area, Ontario, Canada with a population of 61,161 (2016).
New York Times Co. v. Sullivan, 376 U.S. 254 (1964), was a landmark decision of the United States Supreme Court ruling that the freedom of speech protections in the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution restrict the ability of American public officials to sue for defamation. Specifically, it held that if a plaintiff in a defamation lawsuit is a public official or person running for public office, not only must he or she prove the normal elements of defamation—publication of a false defamatory statement to a third party—he or she must also prove that the statement was made with "actual malice", meaning that the defendant either knew the statement was false or recklessly disregarded whether or not it was true.
Acton is a community located in the town of Halton Hills, in Halton Region, Ontario, Canada. At the northern end of the Region, it is on the outer edge of the Greater Toronto Area and is one of two of the primary population centres of the Town; the other is Georgetown. From 1842 until 1986, the town was a major centre for the tanning and leather goods industry. In the early years, it was often referred to as "Leathertown".
The Regional Municipality of Halton, or Halton Region, is a regional municipality in Ontario, Canada, located in the Golden Horseshoe of Southern Ontario. It comprises the city of Burlington and the towns of Oakville, Milton, and Halton Hills. The region provides policing by the Halton Regional Police Service. The regional council's headquarters are located in Oakville. Burlington and Oakville are largely urban and suburban, while the towns of Milton and Halton Hills are more rural.
The National Party of Canada was a short-lived Canadian political party that contested the 1993 federal election. The party is not related to the earlier National Party that was founded in 1979.
Stratton Oakmont, Inc. v. Prodigy Services Co., 1995 WL 323710, is a 1995 U.S. New York Supreme Court decision which held that online service providers could be held liable for the speech of their users.
Barrett v. Rosenthal, 40 Cal.4th 33 (2006), was a California Supreme Court case concerning online defamation. The case resolved a defamation claim brought by Stephen Barrett, Terry Polevoy, and attorney Christopher Grell against Ilena Rosenthal and several others. Barrett and others alleged that the defendants had republished libelous information about them on the internet. In a unanimous decision, the court held that Rosenthal was a "user of interactive computer services" and therefore immune from liability under Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act.
At-large is a description for members of a governing body who are elected or appointed to represent a whole membership or population, rather than a subset. In multi-hierarchical bodies the term rarely extends to a tier beneath the highest division. A contrast is implied, with certain electoral districts or narrower divisions. It can be given to the associated territory, if any, to denote its undivided nature, in a specific context. Unambiguous synonymous are the prefixes of cross-, all- or whole-, such as cross-membership, or all-state.
The 2006 Oakville municipal elections took place on 13 November 2006, to elect a Regional Government chair, the Town mayor, six Town and Regional Councillors, and six Town Councillors in Oakville, Ontario, Canada.
The 2003 Oakville municipal elections took place on 10 November 2003, to elect a Regional Government chair and a Town mayor and 6 Town Councillors and 6 Town and Regional Councillors in Oakville, Canada.
The criminal statutes protecting nobility from criticism in 16th- and 17th-century England eventually evolved into various categories of political libel. Cases of political libel and eventually damages actions were handled by the infamous Star Chamber until its abolition in 1641. By the end of that century, many elements of the common law of libel had been established.
Frank Roger Mazzuca, Sr. was a Canadian politician and businessman in Capreol, Ontario. He served as mayor of the town from 1975 to 1997, and as chair of the Regional Municipality of Sudbury from 1998 to 2000.
The origins of the United States' defamation laws pre-date the American Revolution; one influential case in 1734 involved John Peter Zenger and established precedent that "The Truth" is an absolute defense against charges of libel. Though the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution was designed to protect freedom of the press, for most of the history of the United States, the U.S. Supreme Court failed to use it to rule on libel cases. This left libel laws, based upon the traditional "Common Law" of defamation inherited from the English legal system, mixed across the states. The 1964 case New York Times Co. v. Sullivan, however, radically changed the nature of libel law in the United States by establishing that public officials could win a suit for libel only when they could prove the media outlet in question knew either that the information was wholly and patently false or that it was published "with reckless disregard of whether it was false or not". Later Supreme Court cases barred strict liability for libel and forbade libel claims for statements that are so ridiculous as to be obviously facetious. Recent cases have added precedent on defamation law and the Internet.
Stephen B. Kaufman is a lawyer and former Democratic City Councilman and New York State Assemblyman from the Bronx. In 2004, he ran unsuccessfully for the New York State Senate.
In Canada, a double direct election is an election in which an individual is elected to two political offices in one electoral event. The elected individual serves on a regional council and a constituent municipal government within that region. It differs from indirect election in that in a double direct election an individual is automatically elected to two political positions, whereas in an indirect election, candidates in a municipal election must state the intention to also serve on regional council before that election. The double direct election protocol is slightly different in the case of Bowen Isand, an Island Municipality within the Islands Trust in BC. There are two ballots, one for municipal council, the other for Islands Trust. Candidates that choose to run for both offices declare that intent. The two candidates receiving the highest number of votes for Islands Trust are elected to that body, but only if they are also successful as candidates for the municipal council.
Rector v. Major League Baseball Advanced Media, No. 303630, was a New York Supreme Court defamation case. Andrew Rector sued Major League Baseball, the New York Yankees, ESPN and their MLB announcers for broadcasting images of him sleeping at a game at Yankee Stadium between the New York Yankees and the Boston Red Sox and allegedly making defamatory comments about him. Rector sued for $10 million for "defamation and intentional infliction of emotional distress". The case was dismissed by Judge Julia Rodriguez, who ruled that the statements made were not defamatory.
Leonard "Lenny" Pozner is the father of a Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting victim, Noah Pozner. He is the founder of the HONR Network, which supports the victims of mass casualty violence as well as the targets of online hate speech and harassment.