By Stephen Thiele (July 19, 2024, 9:49 AM EDT) -- In general, defamation actions are not conducive to dismissal on a summary judgment motion. As explained by the Court of Appeal for Ontario in Baglow v. Smith, 2012 ONCA 407, this general rule is based on the recognition that the threshold over which a statement must pass in order to be capable of being defamatory of a plaintiff is relatively low and the long-held view that the question of whether a statement is, in fact, defamatory is to be determined by the trier of fact on a full factual record with cross-examinations and possibly expert testimony....