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.”