Defendant in libel suit ordered to pay $68K in costs to drag performers

Case Summary

Rainbow Alliance Dryden et al v. Webster and Crichton et al v. Webster, 2025 ONSC 2164

The Ontario Superior Court of Justice has awarded a total of $68,000 in substantial indemnity costs payable to 3 drag performers and a small-town Pride organization following a motion for summary judgment in two related defamation actions against a Facebook blogger.

In Rainbow Alliance Dryden v. Webster and Crichton v. Webster, the plaintiffs sued the defendant for posts he made to his widely-read Facebook page in late 2022. His posts described the plaintiffs as "groomers", with reference to their drag story time events in Dryden and Thunder Bay, Ontario. 

On January 31, 2025, the plaintiffs moved to have the two actions decided by summary judgment. On February 20, 2025, Justice Pierce released her decision (2025 ONSC 1161), finding the defendant's posts defamatory and awarding a total of $380,000 in damages to the plaintiffs (including $80,000 in aggravated damages). The amount awarded was exactly the amount claimed in each action. In granting summary judgment, Her Honour concluded that the defendant had "called the plaintiffs pedophiles" and maligned their reputations as a "common bully".

In the costs decision following the summary judgment motion, Her Honour ordered costs payable to the successful plaintiffs in the amount of $68,000 ($37,500 for the Rainbow Alliance plaintiffs and $30,500 for the Crichton plaintiffs). Her Honour's decision noted that the defendant had "unwisely" failed to accept the plaintiffs' offers to settle each of their actions for the all-inclusive amount of $15,000. Justice Pierce also recognized the added costs incurred by the plaintiffs arising from the fact that they had brought a series of Norwich motions to identify the defendant.

Justice Pierce's costs decision recognized the importance of these two actions for the drag community as a whole, noting the involvement of Egale Canada as an intervenor. Her Honour wrote that "[t]he defendant’s inference that the individual plaintiffs, in their drag persona, were grooming children for sexual abuse not only defamed them but by implication, it impugned the reputations of all drag performers who read to children."

The plaintiffs were represented by Douglas W. Judson and Peter A. Howie of Judson Howie LLP. The intervenor, Egale Canada, was represented by Daniel Girlando and Katelyn McFadyen of Borden Ladner Gervais LLP.

A post about the court's summary judgment motion decision is available here.

The Rainbow Alliance case was previously the subject of an unsuccessful anti-SLAPP motion brought by Webster. A summary of that motion decision is available here.

For more information, please contact:

Douglas W. Judson (he/him)

Judson Howie LLP

Email: doug@judsonhowie.ca