Blocking Public Participation: The Use of Strategic Litigation to Silence Political Expression - Softcover

Byron Sheldrick (author)

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1554589290 ISBN 13: 9781554589296

Publisher: Wilfrid Laurier University Press, 2014

Synopsis

Strategic litigation against public participation (SLAPP) involves lawsuits brought by individuals, corporations, groups, or politicians to curtail political activism and expression. An increasingly large part of the political landscape in Canada, they are often launched against those protesting, boycotting, or participating in some form of political activism. A common feature of SLAPPs is that their intention is rarely to win the case or secure a remedy; rather, the suit is brought to create a chill on political expression.

Blocking Public Participation examines the different types of litigation and causes of action that frequently form the basis of SLAPPs, and how these lawsuits transform political disputes into legal cases, thereby blocking political engagement. The resource imbalance between plaintiffs and defendants allows plaintiffs to tie up defendants in complex and costly legal processes. The book also examines the dangers SLAPPs pose to political expression and to the quality and integrity of our democratic political institutions. Finally, the book examines the need to regulate SLAPPs in Canada and assesses various regulatory proposals.

In Canada, considerable attention has been paid to the ""legalization of politics"" and the impact on the Charter in diverting political activism into the judicial arena. SLAPPs, however, are an under-studied element of this process, and in their obstruction of political engagement through recourse to the courts they have profound implications for democratic practice.

About this title

About the Author

Byron Sheldrick is chair of the Political Science Department at the University of Guelph. His research involves the intersection of law and politics and the way social movements organize around legal issues. Before joining the University of Guelph he taught at the University of Winnipeg and at Keele University in the United Kingdom.

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

Excerpt from Blocking Public Participation: The Use of Strategic Litigation to Silence Political Expression by Byron Sheldrick

From Chapter 1: SLAPPs: Courts, Democracy, and Participation

SLAPPs represent a potentially serious threat to political activism and political participation. At a time when we lament the diminished quality of political participation in Canada, as evidenced by decreasing voter turnout, youth disengagement, and general apathy about public issues, it is important to examine critically those structures within our political system that limit and constrain political debate. slapps operate within a highly contradictory context. While one wants to encourage political participation, one also wants to ensure that those who genuinely have suffered a civil wrong have appropriate means of redress. At the heart of this contradictory context are the courts, which must both seek to safeguard democratic practices while also safeguarding their own, far more traditional role as adjudicative bodies.

From Chapter 7: Final Thoughts

SLAPPs, then, represent a very clear legalization of political life. They constitute a strategy of utilizing judicial processes to sideline political activism and block political expression. The targets of these lawsuits are often activists, but often they are also ordinary citizens who have been adversely affected by the exercise of political and economic power. The chilling effect of these lawsuits is difficult to assess, but it certainly cannot be discounted or ignored. Moreover, increasingly, there is evidence that SLAPP-type litigation has moved beyond what might be termed “private matters, ” where both parties operate within civil society, to conflicts that take place within our institutions of democratic practice and accountability. In this context, SLAPPs present an even clearer threat to standards of democratic participation and political expression.

Certainly, due process, the rule of law, and access to justice are also important values of our democratic system. However, when judicial processes can be distorted and abused, in order for one party to constrain and silence the political expression of another, the values of access to justice have been ill served. For this reason, anti-SLAPP legislation is needed throughout Canada. The success or failure of governments to implement regulations will be a test of the quality of our democracy.

Edition details

• Publisher: Wilfrid Laurier University Press
• Publication date: 2014
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1554589290
• ISBN 13: 9781554589296
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 182