In the U.S., reporting your uncle's criminal record is legal as long as it is true. In Canada, it is not necessarily legal, even though true. In the U.S. truth is a defense against libel. In Canada it is not.

In Canada, your uncle could take you to court and argue he has already paid his debt to society and you have no right to publicly humiliate him.

Judgements in such cases are typically small. But your savings are still at risk. Legal fees ensure that. And if you lose the case you have just joined your uncle on the list of family black sheep.

Is it okay to tell the tale if your uncle has died? You are on safer ground, but in Canada the dead still have privacy rights. His surviving spouse, parents or descendants may well have a libel case against you.

The safest advice? If you can't say anything nice about a person, don't say anything at all.

If you must mention it, minimize it. Point the reader to another source of information about your uncle that tells the tale. If you must go further, at least footnote your claims again and again.

Current thinking in genealogy circles is not to identify, let alone describe, living people. (And yes, that can lead to some "interesting" sentences, such as: "He married [Living] 28 Oct 1938 in Toronto.")

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