Editorial
A Superior Court Costs Assessment Officer issued a decision on April 9th that concluded The Current’s legal action against MV Township and members of its former Council. He awarded The Current and its owners $23,553.80 as litigation costs for successfully representing themselves in a lawsuit that confirmed they had been victims of a malicious vendetta aimed at muzzling The Current. Contrast this sum with the $600,000+ paid by the Township to two Sault Ste. Marie lawyers in a losing cause. Questions should be asked why a lawyer (Paul Cassan) located 700 km from the Court was hired by the Township to represent the Defendants, especially as it was his improper letter to CAO Klatt that triggered the defamatory statements about The Current’s publisher, Roger Paul (my husband).
When you add this eye-watering amount of legal fees to the compensation The Current received plus earlier costs orders made in our favour, the total burden on our municipal insurance policy amounts to just under three-quarters of a million dollars. Yet readers who have followed this story from the beginning will recall that not a cent of this would have been necessary had the Township, as it had the moral obligation to do, accepted our pre-lawsuit proposal that they donate $500 to the St. Francis Valley Healthcare Foundation and rescind the defamatory resolution targeting the publisher. The Current has already reported the financial implications of this vendetta on ratepayers through premium increases and greatly increased deductibles. Readers new to the story can familiarize themselves with the complete history and what motivated the perpetrators to carry out their vendetta by following the links below to articles we have published during the past six years.
According to other local media none of this ever happened
It cannot be disputed that malicious abuse of power by elected representatives by way of retaliation against a community newspaper falls into the “need to know” category for ratepayers. Yet neither the Valley Gazette nor The Eganville Leader has acquainted their readers with any of the facts and implications of this scandalous conduct. Not only did both publishers attend the initial Court hearing which The Current won, but all the subsequent Court decisions (including Court of Appeal) are matters of public record, including the contents of the Court file in Pembroke. We have also made a point to update them from time to time on the escalating legal costs of the defence. However, those “news outlets” acted as if it had never happened and also they have studiously avoided approaching the Township for any comment, let alone excuse, for its conduct. In summary, they have intentionally deprived their substantial readerships of any information whatsoever about this gross misconduct of their elected representatives. Ironically, the Valley Gazette describes and promotes itself as “the paper of record for Madawaska Valley and surrounding area!” (See below)
As the Defendants continued their cost-no-object, unmeritorious defence and utilized tactics that resulted in substantial delay, they were doubtless comforted by the knowledge that the majority of their constituents were being kept in the dark. It also probably explains why they refused several invitations from us to participate in mediation.
Update on Delegation Request
As previously reported, the publisher tried to address this irresponsible news suppression by making a Delegation Request to MV Council to focus in particular on the subject of CAO Klatt’s role. That Request has been repeatedly refused on spurious grounds. Most recently, The Current was advised by Deputy Clerk Stecko that Mayor Shulist, before the last rejection of the Request, had “reached out” to the Township’s Integrity Commissioner for guidance and had been told he (Shulist) was justified in rejecting the Delegation Request.
However, the Integrity Commissioner, Tony Fleming, has told The Current in writing that he has never had any discussion with any member of Council about our complaint concerning the refusal of the Delegation Request. The Current has written to both Shulist and Stecko asking them to explain, but they have declined to do so.
It should be no surprise that Shulist would go to these lengths to avoid public exposure of Klatt’s role in these scandalous events because it is bound to reveal the true extent of the roles played by him and his fellow members of the then Council in conspiring to falsely attack the reputation of this (free) community newspaper. In short, they used Klatt as their weapon of attempted destruction and she willingly complied, to the extent of even providing false information to the Court.
Insurance policy abused
The municipal insurance policy used by the Council and Township contained exclusion clauses denying coverage and indemnity for the type of claim made by The Current. In other words, the three-quarters of a million dollars they wasted should by right have come from their own pockets.
Ratepayers may be outraged to learn this, but perhaps it comes as no surprise. After all, The Current has exclusively reported on previous legal matters that our elected and municipal officials have attempted to hush up. These include the wrongful dismissal lawsuit brought by MV’s first Integrity Commissioner, Jack Rosien, who was fired by Mayor Love to prevent him upholding a complaint against a member of Council; the contrived dismissal from employment of Recreation and Community Development Officer, Paul Nopper; the result of my successful Human Rights Tribunal claim against the late Ernie Peplinski and the Township – an outcome which, among other things, required Township staff to undergo human rights training, again not something that the other two newspapers felt was newsworthy.
Finally, it surely cannot be disputed that these flagrant breaches of elected officials’ statutory obligations to conduct themselves with “integrity, transparency and accountability” should have resulted in resignations by the leading culprits, especially by their only witness in The Current’s lawsuit, Klatt. Yet according to the most recent Sunshine List, her salary has actually been increased to $131,350.40. The Current views this as being nothing more than a reward for her original complicity and ongoing cover-up on the subject.
Photo at top: Mayor David Shulist and CAO Suzanne Klatt.
LINKS:
Township settles Rosien litigation – questions remain
Public interest news and information suppression in Madawaska Valley is a disgrace
Integrity Commissioner Guy Giorno accused of being in Council’s back pocket
Court dismisses MV’s request to gag The Current and its owners
Why is CAO Klatt still employed by MV Township?