What is the responsible communication on matters of public interest defence in Ontario?

The responsible communication defence protects publishers - most often journalists and media outlets, though it is not limited to them - who publish a statement on a genuine matter of public interest, even if it later turns out to be false, provided they can show they acted responsibly in trying to verify the information before publishing it. Courts assess responsibility by looking at factors like the seriousness of the allegation, the reliability of the sources relied on, whether the subject was given a fair opportunity to respond before publication, and whether the public interest in the story justified publishing before every fact could be perfectly confirmed.

This defence recognizes that requiring absolute certainty before publishing on genuinely important public matters would chill valuable reporting and public debate, striking a different balance than the traditional truth defence, which requires the statement to actually be true rather than merely responsibly investigated. It is a relatively modern addition to Ontario defamation law and applies only where the underlying subject matter genuinely qualifies as one of public interest, not to purely private disputes between individuals.