Musician awarded $1.5M in defamation lawsuit
Montreal DJ says his career was derailed by social media post accusing him of sexual impropriety
A Quebec electronic music artist hopes to get his career and life back on track after triumphing in an Alberta defamation lawsuit tied to social media posts accusing him of being a sexual predator.
“It was terrible. The whole thing was like pure nightmare and hell,” Frederik Durand said in an interview from Montreal.
“I felt hopeless. It was the worst feeling ever.”
The 35-year-old, who performs under the name Snails, said the Instagram reposts from California resident Michaela Higgins broadsided his career and dropped his earnings off a cliff.
Durand and Higgins both say they have never met.
Durand said he had been performing between 125 and 150 nights a year at dance clubs across North America with a musical style described as “vomitstep”: a mix of guttural bass gurgles, booming, lowfrequency bass and synthesizers.
That all changed in early 2020, he said, when an Instagram account, “@evidenceagainstsnails,” began reposting allegations of serious sexual impropriety against him.
“All the material was aimed at branding Mr. Durand a criminal and sexual predator who engaged in sexual misconduct ranging from non-consensual intercourse to unwanted advances, including towards minors,” Edmonton Court of King’s Bench Justice Nicholas Devlin wrote in a Feb. 26 judgment.
Devlin noted that when one alleged victim publicly backed Durand to say the accusation was false, she herself was attacked online.
“An obvious collateral purpose of the Instagram account was to ‘cancel’ Mr. Durand, frequently tagging (the posts to alert) his agent, producers and venues where he was to perform,” added Devlin.
Durand’s shows in Alberta indeed ended, which led to the case being handled in Edmonton.
Durand said he performed about 15 shows in 2023 and his income dropped from close to $3 million in 2018 to a loss of $138,000 in 2022.
He was initially at a loss on how to fight back.
“When it started it was just pure confusion,” he said. “You read stuff about yourself and you’re like, ‘That literally never happened. That’s not the right side of the story.’”
Devlin noted Durand kept voluminous electronic data records to prove his case while Higgins, while protesting having the matter heard in Alberta, otherwise did not offer a defence.
According to the judgment, Higgins said she posted to raise awareness and to “protect vulnerable women and girls” in the DJ industry. But the judge said reposting defamation is still defamation.
“All the material posted on the Instagram account was second or third-hand, consisting of reposts, which themselves sometimes linked material from elsewhere on social media,” wrote Devlin.
“I have no difficulty finding as a fact that the purpose, intention and effect of the Instagram account was to brand Mr. Durand a creep and a criminal. This easily makes out prima facie defamation.”
Devlin awarded Durand $1.5 million and said his ruling should not be seen to be any reflection on the Me Too movement, which gained speed in 2017 as a torrent of sexual impropriety allegations were levelled against powerful men in entertainment, media, business and other arenas.
“The Me Too movement has served a salutary and long overdue purpose in bringing the prevalence of sexual assault and harassment to the forefront of public attention,” Devlin said.