YOU WERE ASKING

Anonymous has left a new comment on your post "A THANK YOU OUTSTANDING": 

Who is Al Wilson?

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Al Wilson held public office in the Mormac regime. He filed the complaint against me with the Integrity Commissioner.

A lawyer retained by himself and five others was instructed to "investigate" two blogs written by myself and prepare a statement for publication. 

The lawyer advised there was no legal provision for a Council to file a complaint . So Wilson did the deed. The Five others 
attached signatures. 

Staff were directed to publish the statement in two local newspapers. and  on the World Wide Web. They did that but without town I.D.in the newspaper publications. 

Cost  of the publication is not known at this time. 

The lawyer's fee was $43,000 or thereabouts. It included about $4,000 paid to a P.R.firm  to "ameliorate damage " caused by the Integrity Commissioner decision. 

The complaint was dismissed. The commissioner ruled the parties had acted as judge,jury and prosecutor "for purely political purposes"

A meeting of the six complainants lasting six hours, ending at one o'clock in the morning, resulted in a decision by the parties to dismiss the Integrity Commissioner .

His retainer  for a twelve months contract would have been the cost of that exercise plus the fee  for processing the complaint. 

The day his decision was provided to myself by the Town clerk was the day that official "decided  to take early retirement"

A five year contract had been signed eight months previously. The settlement would likely have been the value of the remaining four years and four months.  

The Statement  of Complaint had been read into the public record by another of the parties and the entire process was  taped for public viewing by Rogers Cable Television. 

Despite various steps taken In the process,  litigation proceeded to trial and $845,000 in fees to defend the action was reported  to Council  at a public meeting immediately prior to the last election.

Councillor John Able made the statement the litigation was about winning millions in damages. Mayor Dawe murmured his concurrence 

Town insurance premiums increased the year following, by 41%. 

The same group  authorized litigation in the previous term against three citizens . The action was ruled to be S.L.A.P.P. ( litigation for the purpose of silencing public criticism) and dismissed.  

The town solicitor filed the only affidavit in the case.  A finding in the decision was his answers had been evasive and not truthful. 

The solicitor was terminated by the new Council with a settlement.

$45,000 legal costs incurred by the former Mayor were paid by  the new Council on advice by a solicitor for a fee of $8,000.

The town is currently defending an action by the former Mayor for remaining costs in the action against the three residents. 

Additional  fees were incurred in the first two years of the 2006 term for several lawyers to pursue an action for invasion of privacy of the former Mayor by predecessor Mayor Tim Jones. 

No costs for these  proceedings are known. Records were shredded in the weeks following the 2010 election.

Former Councillor Wilson was first elected after a second campaign 

His platform was "fiscal responsibility"

Along with three of the parties involved in the recurring legal proceedings, litigation and complaint , he was not re-elected. 

Mayor Dawe and Councillor Abel were two of the replacements.