Canadian Court Sides With Protected Identity Online

In this particular instance, the court sided with the posters and refused to order the disclosure of their identities. Since the plaintiff (who has since indicated she plans to appeal) did not identify the specific defamatory words, she failed to establish a prima facie case of defamation. Moreover, the court also ruled that the posters had a reasonable expectation of anonymity and that there were insufficient efforts to try to identify them.

Source

Interesting to say the least as the Harper government is set to pass extremely restrictive internet regulation legislation that would actually outlaw using fake names online, let alone allowing people to sue if you "offend" them online. Very interesting to see a court actually side with reason on this one. Can't wait for the appeal.

That said, a question popped into my head while reading this.

Now they were arguing that someone "defamed" someone online and were attempting to get the court to demand the users information.

So basically, someone using a fake name on a comment section somewhere said something you didn't like and you feel entitled to get that persons name and information so you can sue them.

Well, lets play out a similar scenario except remove the internet.

Lets say you are in a crowded shopping area and someone, whom you couldn't actually see, says something defamatory or hurtful at you. Now of course you didn't actually see who said it so you can't identify them.

Can the court step in and demand you provide your name? Is this not a similar situation?

Great example or question you pose. we will see what happens when Harper's conservatives- the now majority government get bill c-51 passed. As you indicated, it is in parliament currently and will it pass as it is. Hope not.
There is at least one petition that I know of:

How to Act
Canadians need to unite, and get together behind one message: we want to stop online spying. The best
way to send that message is to sign the petition at www.StopSpying.ca... -- our strength is in our
numbers.