Ben Rogers

The appellant was convicted of offences arising from a home invasion robbery in Leamington, Ontario.

He appealed his convictions on two grounds: (1) that text messages obtained from the service provider should have been excluded as obtained in violation of his Charter rights, and (2) that the trial judge erred in accepting certain incriminating parts of a witness's testimony despite finding the witness to be fundamentally dishonest.

The Court of Appeal dismissed the appeal, finding that while Charter breaches occurred, the text messages were admissible under section 24(2) of the Charter, and the trial judge's treatment of the witness's evidence was neither illogical nor inconsistent.

The applicant political party brought an application and motion for an interlocutory injunction against the respondent member and his campaigns, alleging unauthorized use of the party's confidential membership list to send emails criticizing the party leader.

The respondents brought a cross-motion to dismiss the application under the anti-SLAPP provisions of the Courts of Justice Act.

The court granted the anti-SLAPP motion, finding that the proceeding arose from expression on a matter of public interest (political debate), the applicant failed to show its claims had substantial merit and no valid defence existed, and the public interest in protecting the expression outweighed the public interest in allowing the proceeding to continue.

The action was dismissed.