Brian Rogers
Brian Macleod Rogers is a lawyer practicing media law and related litigation, with an emphasis on libel, privacy, copyright, freedom of expression and Internet-related issues. He represents writers, producers, newspapers, magazines, book publishers, broadcasters and electronic media. He maintains an active practice of pre-publication and pre-broadcast review for newspapers, magazines, book publishers and documentary filmmakers.
Brian has appeared before all levels of courts, including the Supreme Court of Canada. In particular, he has acted for media interventions in the following cases: Hill v. Scientology (Supreme Court of Canada 1995: qualified privilege libel defence); Bangoura v. Washington Post (Ontario Court of Appeal 2005: jurisdiction in Internet libel); WIC Radio Ltd. v. Simpson (Supreme Court of Canada 2007/8: fair comment libel defence); Quan v. Cusson (Ontario Court of Appeal 2007; Supreme Court of Canada 2009: public interest libel defence); Grant v. Torstar (Supreme Court of Canada 2009: public interest libel defence); R. v. National Post (Supreme Court of Canada, 2009: journalists’ confidential sources).
He also acted as counsel for Hamilton Spectator reporter Ken Peters, in successfully appealing a contempt finding for protecting a confidential source (Ontario Court of Appeal 2008).
Brian was founding president of Ad IDEM/Canadian Media Lawyers Association (1998-2000) and continues as a director. He was the first Canadian member of the Defense Counsel Section, Media Law Resource Center, a U.S.-based international organization for which he co-authors annual surveys on Canadian libel and privacy laws and is Co-Chair of its International Media Law committee.
He was Canadian legal representative to the Chapultepec Conference on Freedom of Expression (Costa Rica, 1998) and Hemispheric Summit on Justice and Freedom of the Press in the Americas (U.S.A., 2002) and was on the board of Canadian Journalists for Free Expression from 2000 to 2005. He is co-author of Journalists and the Law: How to Get the Story without Getting Sued or Put in Jail (1985) and author of the Canadian chapter in The International Libel & Privacy Handbook (Bloomberg 2009).
Brian has authored and edited articles and books on media law, constitutional law and civil litigation and has spoken on those topics at conferences in Canada, United Kingdom and United States.
The Attorney General of Ontario has appointed him to the Justice-Media Liaison Committee (2007 to present) and the Advisory Panel on Legislation Against SLAPPs (Strategic Litigation Against Public Participation) (2010).
He has been peer-rated as “AV” by Martindale-Hubbell and as “most frequently recommended” in defamation and media-related litigation by LEXPERT. He works in the offices of Wardle Daley Bernstein Bieber, a litigation boutique firm in Toronto.