Reference no: EM133282260

Question - In 2021 Joseph Volpe, publisher of the Italian-language newspaper Corriere Canadese, filed a libel suit against Toronto city councillor Kristyn Wong-Tam. At a news conference Wong-Tam had introduced a motion which labeled articles in the newspaper "homophobic and transphobic." The motion would also have prevented the city from buying ad space in the newspaper unless the newspaper's publisher publicly endorsed the city's Human Rights and Anti-Harassment/Discrimination policies. Lawyers for the plaintiff, Volpe, argued the councillor was attempting to stifle the freedom of the press. The articles in question only criticized some of the decisions made by the Toronto Catholic District School Board Trustees which "did not protect or support Roman Catholic doctrine on certain issues."  In turn Wong-Tam's lawyer argued the libel suit was itself "an attempt by the plaintiffs to chill the speech of elected officials." The Corriere Canadese articles had headlines like "Time to put sexualized virtue-signalling thugs in their place" and "TCDSB website hosts pornographic site defended by trustees." (The "pornographic site" was the sexual-content site Autostraddle, a link for which appeared in LGBT Youthlines, a youth support site the TCDSB had linked to on its own site).

So who's right and who's wrong? What are the journalistic issues involved? Is the libel suit justified? What kind of defense could be used against it?