CITATION: Shanthakumar v. Ming Pao Newspapers, 2017 ONSC 5553
COURT FILE NO.: CV-13-5353-00
DATE: 2017-09-20
ONTARIO
SUPERIOR COURT OF JUSTICE
B E T W E E N:
SULOCHANA SHANTHAKUMAR
Peter M. Callahan, for the Plaintiff
Plaintiff
- and -
MING PAO NEWSPAPERS (CANADA) LIMITED and WST MEDIA GROUP INC.
Iain A.C. MacKinnon, for the Defendants
Defendants
HEARD: January 31, 2017, at Brampton, Ontario
Price J.
Reasons For Order
NATURE OF MOTION
[1] In 2010, the RCMP arrested Sulochana Shanthakumar (“Ms. Shanthakumar”) and her husband and charged them with fraudulently attempting to secure a small Government-backed business loan from the Royal Bank of Canada. The RCMP posted a press release about the arrests on their web site.
[2] Ming Pao Newspapers (Canada) Limited (“Ming Pao”) re-published information about the arrests from the RCMP press release in an article on the newspaper’s web site (“the article”). The article was in the Chinese language but could be translated to English using the Google Translator program. Ming Pao left the article on its web site after the Crown withdrew the charges in court by reason of insufficient evidence.
[3] Ms. Shanthakumar sued Ming Pao for defamation based on the content of the article, which she says damaged her reputation in the community. Her Statement of Claim (the “Claim”) alleges that the article re-published defamatory statements about her. The Claim does not specify the words that it alleges were defamatory or say whether they were published in the Chinese language version of the article, or in the Google translated version.
[4] Ming Pao moves to strike the Claim on the grounds that it does not disclose a reasonable cause of action, may prejudice or delay the fair trial of the action, and is scandalous, frivolous or vexatious, and/or an abuse of the process of the Court.
BACKGROUND FACTS
[5] Ming Pao, a company incorporated under the laws of Canada, owns the Canadian Chinese Express, a weekly Chinese language newspaper distributed in Toronto, and worldwide on the internet. An electronic version of the newspaper is published on Ming Pao’s website (the “on line newspaper”).
[6] Ms. Shanthakumar and her husband reside in the City of Richmond Hill, Ontario. On October 4, 2010, RCMP officers arrested Ms. Shanthakumar and her husband, Santha Mylabathula (Mr. Mylabathula”) based on allegations by the Royal Bank of Canada (“RBC”) that they had used fraudulent means to try to obtain a small Government-backed business loan from the RBC. Later the same day, the RCMP charged Ms. Shanthakumar with one count of fraud, and charged her husband with three counts, namely, fraud, uttering a forged document, and false pretences.
[7] On November 5, 2010, the RCMP posted a press release on their website about the arrests. On November 6, 2010, Ming Pao re-published information from the RCMP press release in its on line newspaper.
[8] The Claim alleges that the article stated that Ms. Shanthakumar attempted to defraud the RBC and the Government of Canada by using fraudulent means to try to obtain a government-backed small business loan. It