A landmark ruling on press freedoms by the Supreme Court of Canada has officially put the brakes to a $1.45-million ruling against the Toronto Star by Northern Ontario businessman Peter Grant, owner of Grant Forest Products.
The source of the Grant legal dispute was a 2001 article about cottagers' opposition to Grant's plans to expand a private golf course. The story contained a quote from one cottager expressing a belief that the controversial plan would move forward due to his links to then-premier Mike Harris. This sparked Grant's lawsuit.
Creating a new legal defense for journalists entitled "responsible communication," the Supreme Court upheld a prior ruling by the Ontario Court of Appeal which scrapped the award – which included $1 million in punitive damages, the highest of its kind in Ontario – and mandated a new trial.