06/25/2025
Slander
The Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms may guarantee freedom of expression, but this right is by no means absolute. Canada’s Criminal Code includes provisions that criminalize certain forms of expression, including hate speech, obscene materials, and perjury. You might be surprised to learn that the Criminal Code also includes provisions covering “defamatory libel,” which can carry a prison sentence of up to five years upon conviction.
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If you are surprised to learn that libel is a criminal offence in Canada, it’s likely because you think of libel as a subject of tort law rather than criminal law. Such thinking is not wrong, as libel is also a subject of civil tort law, which allows people to sue for damages.
Many Canadians are confused about the country’s laws covering libel and its associate terms, slander and defamation. The criminal defence lawyers of the Greater Alberta Area’s Mass Tsang law firm enjoy sharing their in-depth knowledge about Canadian law with their clients. This blog post will clarify how Canada’s laws address libel, slander, and defamation.
Libel, Slander, and Defamation Basics
You first need to understand that libel and slander are two forms of defamation, which in turn is defined as harming a person’s reputation by making public false or misleading statements about them. Libel is defamation leaves a permanent record, whether as published material, email, website posting, video, or broadcast TV or radio. Slander is defamation through publicly spoken statements that are not permanently recorded.
Under Canadian laws, libel and slander are often characterized collectively as defamation for legal purposes. Most defamation cases are addressed by civil tort laws, which differ by province. Alberta defamation laws are covered under the Libel and Slander Act .
When suing for defamation based on libel, a plaintiff does not need to prove that they suffered any damages. Courts will presume the statements were damaging if the plaintiff can establish them as untrue and meet other thresholds. To win a defamation case based on slander, the plaintiff must prove that the false words caused financial damages. This makes slander-based defamation cases much less common than libel-based cases.
