ManitobaAn activist has been ordered to delete social media posts insinuating a southern Manitoba school principal encouraged the spread of child pornography to students.Decision against Raelyn Fox not about shutting down honest discussion: judgeArturo Chang · CBC News · Posted: Dec 01, 2025 8:15 PM EST | Last Updated: 2 hours agoListen to this articleEstimated 3 minutesThe audio version of this article is generated by text-to-speech, a technology based on artificial intelligence.Court of King’s Bench Justice Jeffrey Harris says the injuction ‘is not about shutting down honest discussion.’ (Prabhjot Singh Lotey/CBC)An activist has been ordered to delete social media posts insinuating a southern Manitoba school principal encouraged the spread of child pornography to students.Court of King’s Bench Justice Jeffrey Harris granted an injunction last Thursday blocking Raelyn Fox from making further statements implying Carman Collegiate principal Mary Reimer groomed children, promoted sexual exploitation and child pornography or any words to that effect pending a trial.Reimer filed a lawsuit against Fox earlier this year, accusing the activist of continuing to target the high school years after she petitioned for books she deemed sexually explicit to be blocked at the Prairie Rose School Division.She brought up posts by Fox and others on her social media page, including one in which the activist said the Carman collegiate principal “believes porn should be available to your child whether you find it offensive or not.”The injunction ordered Fox to remove the “online defamatory statements.” Fox’s lawyer, Dave Hill, argued in court Thursday the statements were fair comment, saying all parents have an interest on what’s happening in their kids’ schools.Reimer’s lawyer, Karen Wittman, said the allegations against her client were presented as facts.”It’s not a comment, it’s not hyperbole, and it’s not an opinion,” she said. “We therefore say this fair comment defense is not sustainable to this case.”Decision ‘not a broad gag order’: lawyerJudge Harris said the facts were “not there” to back Fox’s statements. He said a claim three books — Rupi Kaur’s Milk and Honey, Alice Sebold’s Lucky and Juno Dawson’s This Book is Gay — were generally available to students at the school’s library was “demonstrably false.””This is not about shutting down honest discussion,” about which books belong in school, Harris said. The judge said he will deliver his reasons for the decision at a later date.Wittman said the injunction was “not a broad gag order” and only targets defamatory statements that are not a form of protected speech.Fox “remains free to comment as much as she wants on school policy, on school division policy, on books that are appropriate for children,” Wittman said. “We don’t have an issue with it. But when she crosses the line and begins naming the principal of the school and making comments directly at her, that’s where the difference lies.”All of Fox’s children are currently homeschooled, but one of them briefly attended Carman Collegiate, Wittman said.Some of the statements Reimer said were defamatory were still up on Fox’s Facebook page as of Monday.ABOUT THE AUTHORArturo Chang is a reporter with CBC Manitoba. Before that, he worked for CBC P.E.I. and BNN Bloomberg. You can reach him at arturo.chang@cbc.ca.
Judge orders activist to remove defamatory statements about Manitoba school principal
