Mayor Ron Paull, in his petition to the court, said the council resolutions didn’t follow proper procedures and were unreasonable, so should not stand.
A B.C. Supreme Court judge has quashed sanctions imposed on the Quesnel mayor by city council over the mayor’s involvement with a controversial book about Canada’s residential school legacy.
Mayor Ron Paull requested a judicial review of the unanimous council sanctions, which included banning him from regional government meetings and denying him travel expenses, according to a judgment by Justice William Veenstra.
Paull, in his petition to the court, said the council resolutions didn’t follow proper procedures and were unreasonable, so should not stand.
Veenstra agreed and said in his judgment after hearing from both sides in a two-day hearing in September that the “censure and sanction of Mayor Paull are quashed on grounds of procedural fairness.”
Councillors were investigating their options when they asked staff to prepare a report after Paull’s wife distributed a book questioning the possible graves reported at residential schools across Canada, a book the Lhtako Dene Nation in Quesnel considered hateful, according to the judgment.
Chief Clifford Lebrun said at the time he would refuse to meet with the mayor. Council and staff were concerned the city’s relationship with the Lhtako Dene would be harmed and wanted to protect it, the court heard.
Paull told council he hadn’t read the book and didn’t support his wife’s actions, but there were later allegations of him offering the book to two politicians at a Cariboo Regional District meeting, according to the judgment.
But Veenstra agreed with Paull’s position that procedure hadn’t been followed because the city failed to provide the mayor with sufficient notice of proceedings, passed the resolutions based on an unclear and confusing staff report, and censured and sanctioned the mayor based on “alleged misconduct” that was different from the “events” outlined in staff the report.
Staff in the report said they were providing information regarding the mayor’s “potential censure and sanction,” Veenstra said.
Paull argued the report didn’t include the specific misconduct he was alleged to have done, the evidence used to justify censure or sanction, or how the city’s code of conduct was breached. That, he said, “denied him a meaningful opportunity to provide a reasoned and structured response,” according to the judgment.
Paull, reading from a prepared statement over the phone on Tuesday before heading to a council meeting, said he was relieved by the judgment but wouldn’t be commenting with more detail until he and his lawyer have had a chance to go over the ruling.
“I’m happy this is all coming to an end and how I look forward to getting back to the pressing work that I was elected to do,” said Paull, 74. “My health has been impacted by this too-long of a nightmare.”
He said after lawyers for both sides go over the judgment, “Council will be moving ahead, hopefully, to reinstate me,” he said, adding council needs to make motions to remove the alternates it appointed to replace him at meetings he was barred from attending, such as the Cariboo Regional District meetings.
Requests for comment left for the councillors through the city administrator weren’t immediately returned and the Lhtako Dene’s administration said Chief Lebrun would have to meet with council before commenting.