Dale Askey, a McMaster University Librarian, is facing a $3.5million lawsuit from Edwin Mellen Press Ltd., an international academic publishing company, over a personal blog post he wrote three years ago.

In his blog post 'The Curious Case of Edwin Mellen Press', written in September 21, 2010, Askey called the company 'dubious' and 'a junk publisher.'

He said that their books are sold at high prices despite their second-class scholarship. Therefore, Askey urged the university libraries not to buy their books.

"I offered a fair and professional opinion and didn't even remotely think this was a possibility," Askey told The Spec, a Hamilton online newspaper.

On the other hand, the company claims that through his blog post, Askey wanted to put the company out of business.

The company said that the university was also responsible as it allowed him to continue blogging and did not ask him to take down the post.

Overall, two lawsuits have been filed by the company.

The first one was filed in last summer, in June 2012, in the Ontario Superior Court of Justice and the second one was served in December against Askey and the university.

Askey's lawyer, Brian Rogers, told the newspaper that his client was being sued in Canada, while the post was written when Askey was a librarian at Kansas State University, where the libel law is different.

In its defense, the university says that those opinions were published on his personal blog several months before he joined McMaster.

"Because of our respect for individual freedom of speech, the University finds itself today a co-defendant with Mr. Askey in a legal action brought by the Edwin Mellen Press," the university said in a statement.

The University also said that they will continue to defend its commitment to academic freedom and freedom of speech before the courts.

Librarians across Canada also expressed their dissent.

The Canadian Association of Professional Academic Librarians (CAPAL) said that this lawsuit represented a threat to academic freedom not just at McMaster University but academia everywhere.

"I think for librarianship and for the academy, it's a test of what academic freedom is and what we're willing to do to defend such freedoms," Askey said.

He also thanked the university and its management for their continuous support.