Worker Accused of Sexual Assault Can’t Sue Accuser for Defamation

A Canada Post worker accused a fellow letter carrier of sexual harassment and assault. After an internal investigation, a union disciplinary panel dismissed the charges. But the battle was far from over. The accused sued his accuser for defamation for making posts about the alleged sexual assaults on Facebook. The judge ruled that the accuser didn’t have a legally valid claim for defamation because the Facebook posts didn’t mention his name or clearly indicate who the accuser was talking about and tossed the case without a trial. The Manitoba Court of Appeal concluded that the ruling wasn’t ‘clearly wrong’ and refused to overturn it [Sarrasin v Sokal, 2022 MBCA 67 (CanLII), August 24, 2022].

Action Point: Use the extensive resources on the OHSI Workplace Violence Compliance Center to protect your workers from violence and harassment