Top Five 2013: AB v Bragg Communications Inc.

Each year at OJEN’s Toronto Summer Law Institute, a judge from the Court of Appeal for Ontario identifies five cases that are of significance in the educational setting. This summary, based on these comments and observations, is appropriate for discussion and debate in the classroom setting.

AB v Bragg Communications Inc., 2012 SCC 46, [2012] 2 SCR 567

A.B., a minor, was the victim of cyberbullying that involved a fake Facebook profile falsely attributed to her making claims about her sexual behaviour. She petitioned to learn the identity of the perpetrator and sought to proceed in an anonymous lawsuit against this person or persons, reasoning that if her identity were public, she could be the victim of further harassment. In this case, the Supreme Court of Canada (SCC) weighed A.B.’s privacy interest against the public interest in the long-standing principle that court proceedings should be transparent and open to the public. The full decision is available here.