Can I sue for defamation in small claims?

In detail

The Gouvernement du Québec expressly lists defamation among the applications the Small Claims Division does not hear, alongside residential leases, child support, class actions and lawsuits against the Government of Canada.

One recent nuance is worth knowing: the non-consensual sharing of intimate images, by contrast, appears in the list of admissible applications, under the heading of personal and material damage. That is not defamation in the legal sense, but in people’s real lives it is a neighbouring remedy.

For a defamation claim, you have to go to the court of general jurisdiction that has authority over the matter. That means a different procedure, one in which representation by a lawyer is allowed.

What to document

The statements themselves, captured at the moment they are published: time-stamped screenshots, the URL, the account name, how widely they were shared. This kind of content disappears quickly, and it cannot be recovered after the fact.

Official sources

• Applications admissible and not admissible in small claims — Gouvernement du Québec

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