Law360 Canada ( October 2, 2026, 9:38 AM EDT) -- Appeal by the Canadian Union of Postal Workers (CUPW) from the dismissal of its defamation action against Quebecor Media Inc., Sun Media Corporation, TVA Group Inc., Agar and Benlolo. The action stemmed from a broadcast and a column. The Ottawa Citizen published an article with a photograph that showed the CUPW flag flying near a demonstrator holding a flag associated with Hamas. CUPW was invited but elected not to address the allegation that CUPW were terrorist sympathizers and supported Hamas. The trial judge held that the statements and inferences made by Agar and Benlolo suggested that CUPW supported terrorism and was associated with Hamas. He concluded that those remarks were defamatory and that the defence of justification did not apply because the remarks were substantially untrue. However, he dismissed the action, finding that the respondents were entitled to rely on the defence of fair comment. He also held that some of the respondents’ communications were protected by the defence of responsible communication and statutory privilege. CUPW submitted that the remarks were statements of fact and not comment, were not based on fact, did not reflect opinions a person could honestly hold and were made with malice....