Area drag performers are calling it a massive win for the queer community.
An Ontario Superior Court Justice has ruled in their favour that an online blogger defamed them in a 2022 post that described them as groomers.
The court ordered Brian Webster to pay a total of $380,000 in damages to Dryden-based Rainbow Alliance and three performers, one from Dryden and two from Thunder Bay.
In her ruling, Justice Helen Pierce said Webster’s comments were intended to smear their reputations.
“While the plaintiffs are not required to show intent, I find that Mr. Webster intended to create revulsion directed at the drag queens hosting the story hour, counselling people to keep their children away from the event,” Justice Pierce wrote.
“Predictably, his readers responded with hate speech, claiming that the plaintiffs were mentally ill pedophiles who exploit and sexually abuse children. Mr. Webster then approved of their hate speech with smiling emojis and other signs of approval.”
Webster had filed an anti-SLAPP motion, which was dismissed by the court in 2023.
