B.C. court awards damages for defamatory Google review [Video]

A B.C. man has been ordered to pay a total of $4,000 to a Coquitlam company and its two owners because of a negative review he posted on Google.

Hyungdong Lee worked in an office adjacent to the Coquitlam headquarters of Pacific Granite Manufacturing Ltd., according to a B.C. Supreme Court decision issued last week and published online Tuesday. 

In September 2021, Lee’s vehicle was damaged in a hit-and-run crash. The vehicle that hit his was a white Chevrolet Impala that belonged to a Pacific Granite employee, identified in the court decision as a “Mr. Kennedy.”

Lee determined that the offending vehicle belonged to a Pacific Granite employee and had a discussion with one of the company’s owners – Nader Tabrizi – about the crash that he found unsatisfactory. The two parties differ in their accounts of exactly what was said, as described in the decision.

Tabrizi testified that he told Lee the …