Shushed

In Suing for Silence, Mandi Gray opens up important conversations about sexual violence and defamation law in Canada. Her book is exploratory rather than definitive, making an argument that defamation law is being used to silence victims of sexual violence. Those accused of sexual violence sue the accusers. Even victims who are not sued for defamation may be silenced because they fear being sued. Gray’s evidence is anecdotal, not systematic. She nonetheless raises serious concerns about individuals, usually women, who are subject to lawsuits by those, typically men, accused of wrongdoing.

An assistant professor of criminology at Trent University, in Ontario, Gray makes numerous contributions. She provides a legal guidebook, explaining step by step how civil law works in defamation cases. Her description is augmented by first-person accounts of what it is like to be served with a legal notice. One professor — one of the few men interviewed for the...