Can a judge let me serve someone through social media or email if I can't locate them in Ontario?

Yes — Ontario courts can order substituted service, allowing a plaintiff to notify a defendant using a method other than personal, in-hand delivery, when the usual method isn't realistically working. Courts have increasingly accepted service through email, text message, or a defendant's active social media account where a plaintiff can show that account genuinely belongs to and is actively used by the defendant, and that this method is reasonably likely to actually bring the lawsuit to their attention. This isn't granted automatically; the plaintiff generally has to show real efforts were already made to locate and serve the defendant conventionally, and that those efforts failed or were realistically impractical.

The court also wants some evidence the proposed alternative method will actually reach the person — for example, recent activity on the account, or a documented connection between the account and the defendant's identity. Simply finding a profile with a matching name usually isn't enough on its own. If substituted service is granted, courts sometimes also order a backup method, such as sending documents to a last known address or a known family member, to strengthen the chance the defendant genuinely receives notice of the claim against them.