Supreme Court says defamation suit can proceed, Gutowski says
According to an email from Janet Gutowski to the News, The Supreme Court of Canada has ruled against Frontenac County in its attempt to throw out a defamation case the has been levied against 4 members of its 2010-2014 Council for statements and motions made at a Council meeting in May of 2013.
“Looks like we are going to court,” Gutowski said at the end of her email.
Although she said there has been a Supreme Court ruling in the case, Gutowski's email included only a link to the Appeal Court of Ontario ruling, which was made in January although the written decision only came out publicly on May 8th.
County lawyer made the case that all statements made during municipal council meetings are covered by what is called an “absolute privilege” and are thus exempt from defamation laws.
This is the case for utterances made during parliamentary proceedings, but now an Ontario Superior Court Judge, an Ontario Court of Appeal Judge, and apparently the Supreme Court have all ruled that such communication is not covered by “absolute privilege” and Gutowski's court case can now proceed.
Whether this will happen is another matter, as a full blown court case on these matters will certainly be complicated by the passage of time.
One of the four individuals named in the case, Bud Clayton, died last September, and another, David Jones, is no longer a sitting member on Council. The motion that was approved by council which contained the statements at issue was proposed and written by Jones, and the allegations he made in support of the motion were based on an email correspondence that was later confirmed to have been from Clayton.
The two remaining people who were named in suit, John McDougall and Dennis Doyle, are members of the current council. They are named in the suit ostensibly because they voted in favour of the motion which contained the alleged defamatory statements within its preamble.
Whether McDougall and Doyle actions, which amounted to voting in favour of a council motion, are equivalent to those of Jones, who made the utterances, and whether prosecuting a deceased person for defamation is viable, will all have to be considered by the courts if a hearing proceeds. Legal fees required to settle these matters will be substantial, and the County of Frontenac is already on the hook for fees related to the three hearings that have taken place in the pre-trial period.
Un-verfiied reports suggest that the county insurer, who will cover all the costs incurred by the county at the end of the day, is pressuring the county to make a settlement offer.
What is now settled, however, is that members of municipal councils need to be aware that what they say on the record at council meetings can get themselves, or the municipality they represent, into a costly predicament.
(The News is attempting to contact Janet Gutowski for clarification and an updated article will follow as soon as possible and will be published in the Frontenac News on Thursday)
