Explicit video ruling sets precedent, experts say

Man ordered to compensate ex-girlfriend after posting intimate footage online

Legal experts are celebrating a recent Ontario court decision that forces a man to compensate his exgirlfriend after posting an explicit video of her online without her consent.

Both the presiding judge and legal observers say they believe the decision to be the first of its kind in Canada.

Ontario Superior Court Justice David Stinson said the defendant, known only by his initials N.D., must pay his former girlfriend more than $140,000 in damages and interest.

Stinson’s decision ruled the act of posting an intimate image online without permission can be compared to a sexual assault in terms of its impact and lasting harm.

Privacy law experts say the decision sets a precedent that will be felt throughout the country.

They say the ruling closes a gap in the legal system that left victims without a means of compensation if their privacy rights were violated in such a way.

Although posting sexual images of another person without consent has been a criminal offence since 2014, both Stinson and privacy lawyers said they were not familiar with any comparable measures in civil law until now.

Donna Wilson, a Toronto-based lawyer who represented the victim, said the decision feels like a victory.

“(The client and her family) were so happy that there was finally some official recognition of the harm that she suffered and a condemnation from the court that this is wrong and that she was the victim in this case,” Wilson said in a phone interview.

The court decision said Wilson’s client and N.D. had dated for some time while attending high school in Ontario, but continued to stay in touch after the end of their relationship.

The decision said N.D. asked his former partner, who was then 18, to send him an explicit video that he promised he would keep private.

The ruling said the victim resisted for some time before complying in the fall of 2011. She later discovered that her ex had shared the video online the very day he received it and had also shown it to some of their mutual friends.

Wilson said her client was so traumatized by this development that she had to be taken to a crisis centre for help. She had trouble eating and sleeping for days on end and feared her reputation had been irreparably damaged, she added.

“The harm that results and the way the victims end up feeling is the same as someone in a sexual assault,” she said.

“They feel violated. Their bodies are being exposed in a sexual way that they haven’t permitted, and the psychological harm that results is the same.”

Stinson accepted Wilson’s argument, saying the case could not be treated as a mere privacy breach.

Stinson awarded the plaintiff $100,000 in total damages, plus an extra $41,000 in interest and legal costs.

The ruling said that N.D., who acted as his own lawyer, chose neither to defend his case nor settle out of court.