Saskatoon-based dog rescue operator ordered to pay $27K for defamatory Facebook posts

A 2021 photo of Brian and Laura MacKay at their shelter, which doubled as their home. (Carla Shynkaruk/CTV Saskatoon)

A Saskatoon-based dog rescue operator has been ordered to pay over $27,000 in damages to five women after a judge ruled she defamed them in several Facebook posts.

According to King’s Bench Judge Sean Sinclair, the women were volunteers in 2022 and 2023 with Hanna’s Haven, an animal rescue operated in Saskatoon.

By April 2023, Sinclair says the relationship between the five women and rescue operator Laura MacKay had soured, and they stopped volunteering.

MacKay turned to Facebook. In a post to Hanna’s Haven’s 10,000 followers, MacKay accused the volunteers — by name — of trying to steal her dog rescue and hijack her website and online accounts.

“Unfortunately, we gave some ladies our trust as volunteers to help with fosters and adoptions of our rescue dogs. We trusted them to represent us and ensure our dogs were placed in good homes. This has not happened,” MacKay posted on her personal account and on the Hanna’s Haven page on April 20, 2023, according to the court record.

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“These ladies were told they were no longer to be involved with our rescue as they tried to take over our rescue from under us and have now stolen 15 of our dogs.”

Two days later, MacKay followed up with another post, hinting the matter had been turned over to police and that she had a legal team involved. She wrote she had received a letter from the former volunteers that was “now being investigated as blackmail.”

In their lawsuit, the women describe the fear and humiliation they experienced in the wake of the Facebook posts — bewildered messages from friends and contacts in the animal rescue community, wondering what was going on.

They maintained none of what MacKay was saying was true, so they turned to a lawyer.

In May 2023, their lawyer wrote to Hanna’s Haven Animal Rescue Inc. and Laura MacKay asking for a public apology and a retraction. There’s no evidence they received a response, Sinclair says.

So, on Dec. 15, they served MacKay with a defamation lawsuit. As MacKay filed no defence, the women won by default.

In November 2024, having effectively won the case, the women petitioned Sinclair to determine damages. According to Sinclair, they tried many times to serve MacKay with the application for damages but were only able to reach her husband Brian.

For Sinclair, knowing MacKay would likely have received the documents through Brian was enough to proceed.

Based on the two Facebook posts, Sinclair says it’s pretty clear MacKay defamed the five former volunteers, “in that the publication would tend to lower the plaintiffs’ reputation in the eyes of a reasonable person.”

Sinclair says the posts were clearly defamatory because MacKay names the women, so they’re clearly identifiable in her post, she accused them of acting criminally, alleges they were “let go” from their volunteer positions, alleges they tried to take over her business through manipulation, that they stole her account passwords, and insinuated there was imminent police involvement.

While the posts were later deleted, there’s no evidence that MacKay ever apologized, and she did not turn up to court to defend herself.

The women were seeking much more money in damages than what they received, but Sinclair didn’t think they met the threshold to qualify for anything other than what’s referred to as “general damages.”

One former volunteer, Kandace Moen, was awarded $7,500, while the other four — Marnie Wandler, Anita Lepard, Anastasia Graham and Brenna Dolan — were each awarded $5,000 for general damages, plus pre-judgment interest, Sinclair ruled.

You can read the entire King’s Bench decision here.