Defense launched by woman who allegedly published damaging sexual assault allegations – Yukon News

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A Yukon woman charged with defamation, after a Facebook post accusing a high school student FH Collins of sexual assault was widely publicized, denies the allegations.

A defense on behalf of Emily Blanchard was filed with the Supreme Court of Yukon on August 13. In late July, she was charged with defamation in a lawsuit filed on behalf of a high school student, identified only by her initials in court documents. It is alleged that a May 6 post on Facebook by Blanchard stated that the student, in grade 9 at the time, had committed multiple sexual assaults at school and identified him by his first name. The lawsuit also says comments on the post raised concerns for the student’s safety.

An RCMP investigation in May did not result in any charges.

The defense indicates that the comments in its post are based on actual facts and are fair comments protected by qualified privilege. He also says the post was part of Blanchard’s advocacy against abuse of women and girls and that she took action to counter comments on the post threatening violence against the student.

According to the defense statement, Blanchard heard about “various issues affecting the safety of female students at FH Collins High School” from friends in April and May 2021.

Blanchard’s May 6 message is characterized as a summary of what she learned from these friends in the statement of defense. He clarified that the initial version of the message did not contain the first name of student FH Collins. He goes on to say that the student’s name and a photo were first posted in the comments to Blanchard’s post before she added them to the post itself. According to the defense statement, she deleted the name and photo and deleted comments within hours of adding them.

The defense statement also indicates that Blanchard added the following to the post in response to comments threatening violence:

“I don’t believe violence will solve this problem in any form, this child needs help mentally and becoming violent will NOT solve this problem.”

The case has not yet been heard by the court.

Contact Jim Elliot at [email protected]

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