[49] Anti-SLAPP legislation, such as the PPPA, creates a procedure for stage. Legislative anti-SLAPP solutions have now been passed into law in British Columbia, Ontario, and Quebec. In Ontario, the Protection of Public Participation Act, 2015, S.O. 2015, c. 23, s. 3, amends the province’s Courts of Justice Act, R.S.O. 1990, c. C.43, by adding s. 137.1, which introduces a pretrial screening mechanism designed to weed out SLAPPs. This Court recently analyzed s. 137.1 in two decisions released concurrently: 1704604 Ontario Ltd. v. Pointes Protection Association, 2020 SCC 22, [2020] 2 S.C.R. 587, and Platnick v. Bent, 2020 SCC 23, [2020] 2 S.C.R. 645. [50] British Columbia’s PPPA was modelled after the Uniform Protection of Public Participation Act (2017), May 1, 2017 (online), adopted by the Uniform Law Conference of Canada, which, in turn, is based on Ontario’s statute. Like s. 137.1 of Ontario’s Courts of Justice Act, s. 4 of the PPPA creates a pretrial screening procedure that enables a defendant to apply to the court to dismiss a proceeding against them, provided certain criteria are satisfied. Section 4 reads: Application to court 4 (1) In a proceeding, a person against whom the proceeding has been brought may apply for a dismissal order under subsection (2) on the basis that (a) the proceeding arises from an expression made by the applicant, and (b) the expression relates to a matter of public interest. (2) If the applicant satisfies the court that the proceeding arises from an expression referred to in subsection (1), the court must make a dismissal order unless the respondent satisfies the court that 2023 SCC 14 (CanLII) screening proceedings arising from expression on matters of public interest at an early