Podcast couple wins defamation suit against rival over incest claims

A Hamilton, Ont., podcaster is liable for more than $40,000 in damages and legal costs after saying on a livestream that married rivals of his were biological siblings whose incestuous relationship caused their son’s autism.

As part of the ruling, Ontario Superior Court Justice A.J. Goodman ordered Tuesday that political content creator Spencer Butts reimburse $20,000 in legal costs incurred by plaintiffs Ryan and Tanya Davies, the husband and wife co-hosts of the popular conservative podcast Northern Perspective.

Butts, who represented himself in court, chose not to file any materials relating to the reimbursement, according to a filing obtained by National Post.

Goodman found in late May that Butts made defamatory comments about the Davies during an April 17, 2025, livestream analyzing that evening’s federal election leaders’ debate. He awarded the couple $25,000 in damages.

While giving “shout outs” to fellow conservative content creators during the broadcast, Butts said that the Davies “very well might be brother and sister, which would make another thing make sense, which would be way too mean of me to say but you can all infer.”

The couple has a nine-year-old son who lives with autism and a global developmental delay, whose condition they’ve spoken about publicly. In 2023, they appeared on a local Hamilton TV news segment criticizing the Ford government over cuts to provincial autism funding.

Goodman said in a 31-page decision that Butts crossed a legal line by saying the couple engaged in unlawful and highly taboo sexual activities.

“Incest is a crime in Canada, and carries a high level of stigma,” wrote Goodman.

Goodman also found Butts further defamed the Davies’ by saying their supposed blood relation would “make another thing make sense,” reasoning that their son’s condition was widely known in conservative influencer circles.

The decision also noted that Butts repeatedly smeared the couple as “grifters,” “frauds” and “shills” without evidence, including in an April 6, 2025, social media post saying they “beg for money for a kid who doesn’t need it.”

Butts told National Post in April 2026 that he didn’t know the Davies had an autistic son when he made the incest comments.

He said Wednesday he plans to appeal the reimbursement order handed down in court.

Butts first contacted the Davies in February 2025 to share a video he’d made purporting to expose voter fraud in Ontario’s provincial election. The couple say the conversation quickly soured when they told him his investigation seemed incomplete.

He then said in the livestream, filmed two months later, that the couple was “clearly bought and paid for” by election officials.

While the decision largely vindicated the Davies, it wasn’t a total slam dunk.

The couple was seeking $150,000 in damages, but ended up getting a considerably smaller award of $25,000.

Their original claim included $50,000 in damages for their son, which Goodman waived entirely.

The decision noted the original stream was only viewed live by just over 100 people, adding that it didn’t have any measurable impact on the growth of Northern Perspective’s subscriber base.

The Northern Perspective YouTube channel had approximately 154,000 subscribers in March 2025 and has more than 240,000 subscribers today.

Goodman wrote there were substantially more people who heard the defamatory claims from the Davies’ decision to publicly comment on them, including on their podcast, than from Butts himself.

James Kitchen, the couple’s lawyer, said that while he’s happy to have won the case, the judge’s reasoning sets a worrying precedent.

“The judge really took a strong position on the issue of rebroadcasting. There’s this idea that, as soon as you mention the defamatory thing someone said about you, you somehow lessen it,” said Kitchen.

“That puts people in a no-win situation because, if you want to refute the bad thing they said, you have to say what it was.”

Kitchen said the fact the Davies have a much larger audience than Butts was irrelevant to the case.

“Having the bigger platform shouldn’t mean they should have to sit there silently, letting this guy say these horrendous things about them, until they can finally get their day in court,” said Kitchen.

Kitchen added that while he didn’t agree with every point in the decision, the case still showed there’s a viable process for dealing with bad behaviour on social media through the court system.

“Our court system isn’t great, but it’s far superior to anything else we have to adjudicate disputes,” said Kitchen.

Kitchen said he was skeptical of the federal Liberal government’s efforts to police so-called “online harms” by placing more government oversight on social media.

The lawsuit created a noticeable rift among right-leaning content creators, with several prominent conservative influencers posting messages of support for Butts.

Clyde Do Something, a Canadian conservative content creator who now lives in Texas, says that he’s worried about a rise in frivolous lawsuits over hurt feelings.

“This could have a chilling effect on online discourse and open discussion – the very freedom of expression that many of these offended commentators claim to champion,” he said.

He added that he’s been personally threatened with lawsuits over his digital content.

Northern Perspective is well known among conservatives online. The program interviewed federal Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre last October. That appearance led to a headache for the leader when he said on the show that the leadership of the RCMP was “despicable” for the way it handled Liberal government scandals.

National Post rmohamed@postmedia.com