Saskatoon dentist wins defamation settlement against two former employees

Saskatoon dentist Gary Houseman has won a $240,000 defamation settlement against two former employees who had been anonymously posting negative reviews of him online.

Houseman’s lawyer, Kristen Hnatuk, said it all started when her client was perusing his reviews for his RateMDs profile in 2017.

“The first thing that he saw were several negative reviews, and he came to me and was wondering what he could do with these reviews. Obviously he knew that they were false and the incidents that were being reported were nothing that had occurred in his clinic,” said Hnatuk.

Hnatuk said they reached out to the RateMDs website and got a court order to have information released to them about whoever posted the reviews. They then had to go to court to get an order for the production of the IP addresses that were registered to those specific posters.

She said they were able to identify whether the posts were registered through SaskTel, Shaw or another service provider. Hnatuk said they had to get disclosure from two providers and take them to court to get court orders to produce the actual names behind the IP addresses.

She said from there they were able to identify who had actually made the online posts and were then able to bring forward the defamation suit.

According to the court decision, the two employees, Paige Harrison and Nia Harrison, had been let go from the dental clinic in 2017. It was shortly after that happened that Houseman began seeing the negative reviews.

Hnatuk said neither woman defended against the claim.

“They never did give a reason or defended against it, so we really don’t know why they had this personal attack against their former employer,” Hnatuk said.

Hnatuk said Houseman’s business was impacted after the reviews were posted, and he was personally affected as well.

“Ultimately he works in an industry where it’s reputation-based, so having those negative reviews on RateMDs that the whole public could see certainly impacted him,” the lawyer said.

Hnatuk said she and her client are very pleased with the outcome and hope it sends a message to others.

“The end result here is what we were hoping for and this sends a message to people that they can’t hide behind a computer to defame someone,” she said.