For the past several years, Brenda Marlia says she’s been repeatedly targeted by nasty, defamatory comments online.
“Brenda’s a horrible mother,” she reads from one of the comments she has saved on her phone. “Other comments are that I do drugs with my kids and leave them unsupervised.”
The multiple attacks have been posted on various social media channels since 2014.
“It just never stops,” she said.
Marlia believes the person behind them is someone she once called a friend — a relationship that soured shortly before the attacks began.
“It’s damaging my reputation. It’s just relentless, you know one or two posts from someone upset is fine but these ongoing, multiple attacks and baseless accusations are exhausting.”
It hit a fever pitch a few years back when an investigator from Ontario Children’s Aid Societies looked into the claims.
“The investigator said they got repeated calls that my children were being harmed,” Marlia said. “Which was traumatizing for the kids, because in their head, they’re just like, ‘Who’s this lady? Why is she asking us questions about how we live?’ Are we going to get taken away from our home?’ ”
Marlia explained to the investigator about the online abuse, after a home visit she was cleared of any wrongdoing but the online attacks continued.
“You just feel helpless,” she told us. “I’ve gone to police but all they suggested was that I deactivate all my social media, which I have recently done for the most part.”
In this digital day and age, Marlia is far from being alone.
“The situation is really out of control,” said Denis Grigoras, a Toronto attorney specializing in defamation law.
“Defamation is simply a communication about the plaintiff to a third party that tends to lower the reputation of that plaintiff in the eyes of the community,” he said. “Frankly, the law is still playing catch-up, and addressing the problem quickly or effectively is challenging.”
Victims can sue but he says Initiating a defamation claim against an internet troll costs money because defamation law is technical and complex, and a damages award is just a piece of paper showing someone owes you money. If the troll has no assets, there’s little justice.
“How do you collect against an internet troll that has no assets?” Grigoras asked. “Our law has recently provided some clarity against victims of online defamation, allowing the person, in certain circumstances, to sue social media platforms as the re-publisher of the defamatory content. This provides an added ‘punch’ in terms of the potential to collect from a liable defendant; however, it doesn’t lessen the cost of legal proceedings,” he said.
But the process is complicated with strict timing deadlines to file a claim.
He strongly suggests anyone who feels they’re being defamed online should flag the posts and report them to the host site like Facebook or Google.
“Keep in mind, online defamation is also considered a criminal act under the Criminal Code of Canada, so a victim can report the violating content to the police. However, historically, the police have not often pressed charges in defamation cases reported to them,” he said.
Grigoras says the law in Canada needs to catch up to technology to increase penalties for people found guilty of defamation.
“To my knowledge there is no conversation about this by policymakers and there should be,” he said.
Marlia agrees.
“They have the law, just enforce it because being attacked like this is devastating and has taken a huge emotional toll on me and my family, telling someone just to deactivate their social media isn’t enough.”
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