In 2020, someone started posting on an anonymous Instagram account alleging sexual assault, harassment and abuse by men in Regina.
While it was operational, the victimsvoicesregina account named several high-profile people, including a Regina city councillor, a musician and leaders in the non-profit community.
The page was shuttered after legal threats from men who alleged some of the posts were defamatory. Five years later, a series of related lawsuits are continuing to make their way through the Saskatchewan court system.
A May 8 decision from Saskatchewan’s Court of Appeal ordering SaskTel to hand over identifying documents shows that at least one of those lawsuits may be close to identifying the two women that operated victimsvoicesregina.
Mandi Gray is an assistant professor at Trent University who has studied structural violence in Canada’s legal system. She said her research indicates defamation suits are increasingly being used as a tool to silence alleged victims of sexual abuse who have come forward to speak out.
That has only increased since the MeToo movement in 2020, which sought to hold people accountable for sexual violence, Gray said.
“There were consequences for many people who were accused of sexual violence and, as a result of the reputational harm that they’re alleging, they have taken action,” Gray said.
“It is a lot of men with access to resources and power, like celebrities and politicians, but we’re also seeing it among regular people, as well, as a tactic to silence and punish people for speaking about what had happened to them.”
Lawsuits used to silence victims, says researcher
CBC has been able to confirm that at least three lawsuits have been filed against the operators of the victimsvoicesregina account.
The plaintiffs include a Regina teacher, a man named Ryan Boldt, and someone identified only as A.H., whose lawsuit was referenced in the Court of Appeal decision.
CBC has previously spoken with one of the two women who operated the victimsvoicesregina account. CBC agreed not to name the woman, who is a survivor of sexual assault.
She launched the Instagram page, also known as Survivor’s Stories Regina, in July 2020 in response to a CBC News investigation that uncovered numerous allegations of verbal sexual harassment and inappropriate behaviour against mental health advocate and former Earls manager Jim Demeray, who said the allegations against him were “baseless and untrue.”
It was one of multiple similar accounts that emerged across Canada during the MeToo movement, which sought accountability for sexual violence perpetrated by the rich and powerful.
The account was quickly shut down under threats of lawsuits against the operators.
Gray said that demonstrates how defamation lawsuits are a powerful tool.
“Even just the mere threat of a defamation lawsuit can often be enough to shut people down from coming forward and reporting, but also just talking about sexual violence more generally,” she said.
Stories on social media are a sexual harassment wake-up call in Regina
The decision from the Court of Appeal is tied to a June 2021 civil lawsuit by Boldt, represented by Madlin Lucyk of Nychuk & Company, a Regina-based legal firm. Lucyk declined to comment for this story.
Boldt filed the lawsuit against three women — referred to in the suit as Jane Doe, Betty Doe and Sally Doe — and Meta Platforms, the company that operates Facebook and Instagram.
Boldt alleges that Betty created a false and defamatory story about Boldt sexually harassing her.
He alleges that Betty Doe brought the story to Jane Doe and Sally Doe, who administered the victimsvoicesregina account. On July 25, 2020, the account published the story without “taking any steps to verify” the accuracy of the story or the comments made on the post, the lawsuit says.
Boldt claims he suffered $1,000,000 in damages as a result of the the defamatory post. He is also seeking punitive and aggravated damages.
Since Boldt does not know the identities of Betty Doe or the administrators of the account, and requires that information to properly file his lawsuit, Boldt’s legal team filed an application with Telus, Access and SaskTel.
The application directed each telecommunication company to produce documents tied to activity from certain internet protocol (IP) addresses at specific dates and times, including account holder name, account holder addresses, account holder billing information, account holder email addresses, physical addresses related to IP addresses and any other identifying information.
Although Telus and Access took no position on the application, SaskTel opposed the motion.
The Crown Corporation argued that the documents were subject to solicitor-client privilege as they were in the possession of the organization’s legal department and that Boldt had not established that they were relevant to his claim.
In April 2024, a Court of King’s Bench judge ruled against Boldt, finding that the legal confidentiality trumped Boldt’s interests.
Boldt’s appeal of that ruling was heard by a panel of judges including Justice Georgina Jackson, Justice Keith Kilback and Justice Meghan McCreary.
The panel found that because the Court of King’s Bench judge failed to perform an analysis, and instead simply accepted SaskTel’s assertions, the judge made a legal error.
The court found that since SaskTel admits it possesses or controls at least some of the identifying documents and they are relevant to the identity of at least one of Jane Doe, Betty Doe or Sally Doe, they should be produced as part of the lawsuit.
It also ruled that the information should be held by Boldt and his legal team “in the strictest confidence” and should only be used in this specific litigation.
SaskTel did not answer whether it plans to appeal. In a statement, the Crown Corporation said SaskTel is committed to “acting in accordance with all applicable laws and regulations, including full compliance with court orders.”
