continue outweighs the proceeding’s “deleterious effects on expression and public [60] In Pointes, this Court outlined several factors that may help judges undertake the weighing exercise, provided those factors can be “tethered to the text of [the provision] and the considerations explicitly contemplated by the legislature to conduct the weighing exercise” (para. 80): For example, the following factors, in no particular order of importance, may be relevant for the motion judge to consider: the importance of the expression, the history of litigation between the parties, broader or collateral effects on other expressions on matters of public interest, the potential chilling effect on future expression either by a party or by others, the defendant’s history of activism or advocacy in the public interest, any disproportion between the resources being used in the lawsuit and the harm caused or the expected damages award, and the possibility that the expression or the claim might provoke hostility against an identifiably vulnerable group or a group protected under s. 15 of the Charter or human rights legislation. [Emphasis in original; para. 80.] [61] The chambers judge found that Mr. Neufeld had not shown harm substantial enough to outweigh the significant public interest in Mr. Hansman’s expression. The Court of Appeal held that the chambers judge had erred both in his analysis of the harm to Mr. Neufeld and in his assessment of the public interest in protecting Mr. Hansman’s expression. Specifically, the Court of Appeal found the chambers judge ought to have considered as part of the harm analysis “the potential chilling effect on future expression by” potential plaintiffs who might wish to engage in highly charged public debates, but would opt not to “for fear of being inveighed with negative labels and accusations of hate speech with no opportunity to protect their 2023 SCC 14 (CanLII) participation” (Pointes, at para. 82).

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