Satire site reposts Steele Auto Group story after lawsuit threat

Brand Review, a satirical news site, re-posted its story about Steele Auto Group's plan to expand in north-end Halifax after the company threatened legal action in May.

Matt Brand, creator of the site and a stay-at-home dad, removed the story after getting a cease and desist letter from Steele's lawyer. Now he has support from one of Canada's top privacy and technology lawyers, David Fraser, who is helping pro bono against any potential legal action.

"I knew deep down that I wanted to fight it. I knew I couldn't at the time but now to have real backing in my corner, it makes me feel empowered," said Brand.

"It makes me feel great. It makes me feel like there are forces out there that are truly trying to do the right thing and help the little guy." 

Some changes

The story, which was added to the site again Monday morning, is slightly different from the original piece. Instead of attributing fake quotes to actual Steele employees, Brand made fake names. He removed the reference to a Hondas Not Homes Facebook group.

"I've taken out the Facebook group mention, but I still feel strongly that everything they've been doing is a campaign to replace homes with the Hondas so I think the Hondas Not Homes still applies," said Brand.

David Fraser, Brand's lawyer and self-admitted fan of satire, said he has done a fair amount of work related to online defamation in the past. He said Brand's case was a good fit for his firm.

Not defamation if not believable

"I was glad to help him and hopefully this will be the end of the story, at least on the legal side. but I guess we will see what happens after the revised article ends up being re-posted," said Fraser.

The lawyer said the piece was obviously fictional. 

"A lot of this comes down to what would somebody of ordinary sensibility believe. What would they look at and see? Would they read the story and infer that it is factually correct? And if they wouldn't, then it's really not defamatory," said Fraser.

Protecting satire

Fraser said the law has to "increasingly recognize the right of expression" and "make room for satirical content that conveys a political or other message that relates to a matter of public interest."

Brand said if Steele had a sense of humour about the piece, it would not have got the amount of attention it received.

"They brought it upon themselves when they made a big deal of it. I was only going to get a hundred hits on the story and it was going to go away. Their actions, their bad PR move, has forced this to be something bigger than they imagined," said Brand.