“The fair comment defence is admirably summarized in R. Brown, The Law of Defamation in Canada 2d ed. (Toronto: Thomson Professional Publishing, 1999) at 15.1:
Everyone is entitled to comment fairly on matters of public interest. Such comments are protected by a qualified privilege if they are found to be comments and not statements of fact, and are made honestly, and in good faith, about facts which are true on a matter of public interest. A comment is the subjective expression of opinion in the form of deduction, inference, conclusion, criticism, judgment, remark or observation which is generally incapable of proof. In order to be fair, it must be shown that the facts upon which the comment is based are truly stated and that the comment is an honest expression of the publisher’s opinion relating to those facts [footnotes omitted].”