Province is planning legislation to halt abusive lawsuits, Eby says
The B.C. government plans legislation to help stop lawsuits that stifle public participation, Attorney General David Eby said Thursday.
Eby was reacting to a letter the B.C. Civil Liberties Association sent to him, signed by a host of leading legal figures, urging him to bring in effective legislation against what are known as strategic lawsuits against public participation, or SLAPP.
“British Columbians should have the right to participate freely in public debates without fear of retribution,” Eby said in a statement.
“We are currently considering the means of ensuring that such legislation will be as fair and effective as possible.”
Fifteen legal heavyweights signed on to the letter, including two former Supreme Court of Canada justices, a former chief justice of B.C.’s provincial court, former B.C. premier Ujjal Dosanjh, and Wally Oppal, a former B.C. attorney general and B.C. Appeal Court judge.
The letter says the so-called SLAPP lawsuits deter people or groups from speaking out by unfairly targeting them with legal action and exposing them to what are described as “onerous financial and emotional costs.”
British Columbia briefly had anti-SLAPP legislation in 2001 under Dosanjh’s former NDP government, but it was repealed that same year, soon after the Liberals took office. The letter urges the B.C. government to follow Ontario’s example and adopt a law that provides for speedy review of potentially abusive suits, while protecting those that have merit.
Oppal says the sole reason for SLAPP suits is to “censor public opinion, to intimidate people (and) to silence critics.”
“We don’t expect the government to stop all the presses and put this on the priority schedule, but on the other hand, it is something that needs to be done, and we expect that they will,” Oppal said.