An Ontario judge has dismissed a defamation lawsuit from three nurses who face disciplinary action for speaking out against COVID-19 restrictions. .CBC News reported Thursday the lawsuit was dismissed by the Ontario Superior Court of Justice under the province’s anti-strategic lawsuit against public participation (SLAPP) law. SLAPP lawsuits are a legal maneuver often used by rich, powerful people to intimidate, silence, and bankrupt critics. .Registered nurses Kristen Nagle, Kristal Pitter, and Sarah Choujounian and Canadian Frontline Nurses (CFN) said in January they were seeking $1 million in damages against the Canadian Nurses Association (CNA) and Together News Inc. (TNI). .READ MORE: Embattled nurses sue for cool $1 million seeking damages for hurt reputations.The statement of claim named CNA, President Tim Guest, CEO Michael Villeneuve, and TNI as defendants. .The lawsuit alleged all defendants made defamatory statements against the applicants while anti-lockdown protests were held at hospitals across Canada in 2021. .Ontario Superior Court Justice Marie-Andree Vermette sided with the defendants, saying the applicants "failed to establish they have suffered sufficiently serious harm and failed to show a causal link between the harm they allege and the publications in issue.".The ruling cited the anti-SLAPP legislation, saying there were more severe harms to the applicants’s reputations unrelated to the defendants’s comments. It said some of these harms included professional misconduct investigations into the nurses by the College of Nurses of Ontario, their terminations from their jobs with cause, and multiple news stories about them. .Vermette called their decision to sue in the first place “puzzling.” She said the decision to sue TNI was surprising because they ignored similar stories by large news outlets. .The CBC was cited in Vermette’s decision, who noted Nagle said it ruined her career and destroyed her life. The applicants did not sue CBC for defamation. .The court’s decision to dismiss the lawsuit under anti-SLAPP legislation is the latest judgment against groups opposing COVID-19 restrictions attempting to use the legal system to silence and intimidate critics. .While SLAPP suits are a traditional tactic for rich, powerful people to shut up their opponents, they have been used lately by those alleged to have spread COVID-19 misinformation. .Since Vermette has dismissed the lawsuit, all parties must agree on costs. Ontario’s anti-SLAPP law says defendants are entitled to full costs of the litigation except if a judge determines otherwise. .The ruling concluded by saying she would hear arguments to determine damages in January if the parties cannot agree on costs. .CFN said it disapproved of the decision. .“It’s not over, we will appeal,” it said.
