Letters Blogatory

The Blog of International Judicial Assistance
By Ted Folkman

Case of the Day: In re Application of Ontario Principals’ Council

The case of the day is In re Application of Ontario Principals’ Council (N.D. Cal. 2013). The Ontario Principals’ Council, Gordana Stefulic, Vivian Mavrou, and Varla Abrams were plaintiffs in a Canadian defamation action. The allegation was that anonymous or pseudonymous internet users had posted defamatory comments on websites such as Topix. The plaintiffs sought leave to serve a subpoena on Topix in order to identify the supposed tortfeasors.

The magistrate judge conducted an Intel analysis. The factors favored the subpoena: Topix was not a party to the Canadian case; the evidence would assist the Canadian court in assessing the claims; there was no evidence of an attempt to circumvent Canadian proof-gathering mechanisms. The judge therefore granted the application.

The plaintiffs also sought an injunction enjoining Topix from notify its users of the subpoena. The judge correctly rejected this request for a prior restraint of speech without much analysis. That’s one I haven’t seen before.

Ted Folkman
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5 responses to “Case of the Day: In re Application of Ontario Principals’ Council”

  1. John Fresco

    Ted Folkman, these three TDSB teachers are using taxpayers’ monies via Ontario Principals’ Council to prevent concerned teachers from leaking out information from the disciplinary committee of the Ontario Teachers’ College which is the professional and licensing organization of teachers in Ontario, Canada.

    Some of the TDSB staff were releasing allegations and memos of these teachers and the recent allegations on the news about a teacher who shared sex pamphlets to students and a deputy Minister being caught in a child pornography scandal is making the TDSB Trustees, administrators and union wolves nervous.

    The Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms protect private citizens from unreasonable search by public entities. This includes public schools.

    The quoted defamatory comments are the memos, paraphrased news stories and teachers’ allegation which the concerned teachers leaked about Gordana Stefulic, Vivian Mavrou & Varla Abrams.

    The Ontario Principals’ Council is protecting their union cronies. Same old same old public school old people protecting their own…

    Reply
    1. Oliver Stoneworth

      Slanderous piece made by fake name John Fresco

      Reply
  2. John Calhoun

    Mr. Folkman,
    Is there any reason why agents of the government, such as the Toronto Police are writing notices to Google to shut down your website regarding taxpayer funded public school teachers?

    Your website is being written to Google to be delisted and shadow banned because of a teacher in the Toronto district school board.

    https://www.lumendatabase.org/notices/search?page=2&sort_by=date_received+desc&term=mavrou

    Reply
  3. John Calhoun

    Why are the Toronto Police trying to shut down your website for blogging about the Toronto public school system? Are teachers in Canada above the law? Are they untouchables?

    Your website is #8 to be delisted, if Google approves the Defamation complaint from Canada:
    https://www.lumendatabase.org/notices/16061272

    Reply
    1. Gen Z

      John, you’d think that with the crazies and mentally unstable people pushing people on the subway tracks, the corrupt Toronto Police would have something better to do than bully Google into delisting websites for content that anonymous users post. Heck, this website doesn’t even have anything defamatory about an opinion of a lawsuit which has some strange requests like not notifying the subscribers and an entire fishing operation to search for everyone and everything.

      Reply

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