Website for lovers scorned

I wrote about a month ago about a relatively new website, DontDateHimGirl.com, that allows women to share their stories of cheating boyfriends and husbands. These are apparently to serve as a warning to others. It's a veritable rogues' gallery on the site. (See: The Canadian Privacy Law Blog: On website, women identify cheaters.)

CanWest News Service has run a feature about the site in many of its papers today. I spoke with the reporter on Friday and the article is an interesting read. Unfortunately, it is available only to subscribers to the Canada.com network and the individual newspapers, but the bit about the legal aspect of the site is below:

The men profiled on the
site would probably agree.
At present, a number of
them are attempting to
launch a class-action lawsuit
against the site.

But Ms. Joseph, who created
the online database
with legal counsel, believes
she is protected by U.S. law.

According to a privacy
lawyer from Halifax, that
may not be the case in
Canada.

“If the person’s reputation
is in Canada, and they
are in Canada, and likely
the person who posted the
information is in Canada,
there’s more than enough
connection for Canadian
defamation law to apply,”
says David T.S. Fraser,
chairman of the Privacy
Practice Group at McInnes
Cooper. But he hastens to
add the statements aren’t
considered defamatory if
they’re true.

“If you’re a slug,” says Mr.
Fraser, “it’s only appropriate
people know you’re a
slug.”