
Right-Wing Trolls Are Freaking Out After Learning They Can Get Sued for Calling People ‘Groomers’ on the Internet
New court decision reinforces that there is no public interest in speech that exposes vulnerable groups to hate

Last year, Rainbow Alliance Dryden, a 2SLGBTQIA+ community group in Dryden, Ontario launched a defamation lawsuit against Brian Webster, a Thunder Bay blogger who runs a local Facebook page.
The lawsuit was prompted by Webster’s anonymous posts reacting to a CBC News article about a drag story time event organized by the plaintiffs: “Ask yourself why these people need to perform for children?” Webster wrote. “Groomers. That’s the agenda.”
In its decision, the court found Webster’s statements failed a basic “public interest” test since “perpetuating hurtful myths and stereotypes about vulnerable members in our society” does not represent speech anti-SLAPP rules are “intended to protect.”
“I agree with the Plaintiffs that perpetuating such stereotypes and myths about members of the 2SLGBTQI community is not public interest speech,” the decision explains. “It is not a matter about which the community has a genuine interest or genuine stake in knowing.”
“If the post merely questioned the propriety of drag storytime for children, or expressed his opinion that drag storytime is not appropriate for children, I may have been inclined to find that the matter was social commentary and public interest speech.”