What legal test does a judge apply on an anti-SLAPP motion in Ontario?

On an anti-SLAPP motion, the judge applies a two-stage test. First, the defendant must show the lawsuit arises from an expression they made on a matter of public interest - a relatively low threshold to clear at this initial stage. Once that is shown, the burden shifts to the plaintiff, who must satisfy the court that their underlying claim has substantial merit, that the defendant genuinely has no valid defence to it, and that the harm likely suffered from the expression is serious enough that the public interest in allowing the lawsuit to continue outweighs the public interest in protecting that kind of expression.

If the plaintiff cannot clear all of these hurdles, the case is dismissed at this early stage rather than proceeding to a full trial. This weighing exercise means even a technically valid claim can still be dismissed if the resulting harm does not outweigh the value of protecting the expression involved, which is what makes this a genuinely different and more demanding test for plaintiffs than an ordinary motion to strike a weak claim.