The appellant argued that Frederiksen, in her public persona, appropriated her identity as an anti-hate speaker and assumed an appearance and religious and sexual identity that stole the appellant’s “life and accomplishments.” Regarding the respondent Bernie Farber, the appellant took issue with his public statement on a television show that mentioned both the appellant and Frederiksen.
The motion judge dismissed the appellant’s claims on a summary judgment motion and ordered her to pay damages for defamation. She granted a permanent injunction requiring the appellant:
- to refrain from making or publishing any statement referring to Frederiksen;
- to remove the online statements she made about Frederiksen;
- to release the domain names she created using Frederiksen’s name;
- to refrain from using online identifiers containing that name.
The appellant moved for an order to set aside the registrar’s dismissal of her appeal and sought extra time to perfect the appeal. The Court of Appeal for Ontario dismissed this motion, declined to set aside the registrar’s order of dismissal, and refused to grant the appellant’s request for additional time. However, it did recognize the importance of a party’s right of appeal.
The appellate court considered the following factors in making this decision: the appellant’s failure to timely pursue the appeal, the evident malice in the appellant’s actions, the appeal’s little merit, and the prejudice to the respondents.
On the appeal’s merits, the motion judge made well-founded observations that the appellant’s claims were speculative, frivolous, and vexatious, the appellate court ruled. It rejected the appellant’s claims for the following reasons:
