Thompson ordered to cover $40k legal bill in battle with councillor

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A Manitoba judge is blasting a northern municipality for the way it treated one of its councillors ordering it to pay more than $40,000 in legal fees she spent to get her job back.

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“The conduct of a municipal council, interacting with its elected representatives, is critical to the health of the municipal government,” Manitoba Court of King’s Bench Justice Chris Martin said in a written decision dated Oct. 10.

“It can foster communication, collaboration and compromise or, as it did here, it can unjustly and arbitrarily attempt to stifle an elected representative and thereby disenfranchise voters.”

Issues first arose in the RM of Thompson in October of 2022 soon after Donna Cox was elected to represent Ward 2 in the northern Manitoba community as council voted to move most council and committee meetings from evenings to mornings.

Cox objected to the move because she worked a full-time job, and said she could not get the time off in the mornings to attend all required meetings.

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After Cox missed a total of three committee meetings, council voted in April of last year to disqualify her from council, but Cox fought the move in court, and in February of this year Martin ruled that she should be reinstated to her position on Thompson council.

The legal fees for the RM in their battle with Cox are adding up. In his Oct. 10 decision, Martin said the RM must pay 95% of Cox’s more than $45,000 in legal fees, while the RM also spent more than $65,000 for legal representation on what Martin called an “ill-conceived and failed venture.”

The judge added in his decision that Thompson council members knew when they were changing their meeting hours that those changes would lead to Cox being forced to miss some meetings.

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“She was bound to fail,” Martin wrote. “Ms. Cox’s absences were not a matter of neglect, irresponsibility, or intention to flout her obligations to attend meetings.”

Martin also ruled that after the meeting times were changed council made “no effort” to accommodate or assist Cox with council or committee schedules.

“Rather, it developed an obstinate posture where, as the Reeve conceded, ‘she had to decide between her job and fulfilling the duties of a councillor.’” Martin wrote.

When reached by phone on Thursday, RM of Thompson Reeve Brian Callum said that he was “surprised and disappointed” by Martin’s decision, but said he would offer no further comment before reviewing the decision with RM lawyers.

Cox was reached by phone on Thursday and also offered no comment on the decision.

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In a previous decision in February, when Martin first ruled that Cox should be reinstated to council, the judge also raised concerns about how Thompson council’s actions could suppress the will of voters.

“A municipality cannot, in a situation such as this, in effect, obstruct a councillor and disenfranchise voters, by taking actions it knows, or should reasonably know, will preclude the elected representative from fulfilling their function,” Martin wrote in February.

— Dave Baxter is a Local Journalism Initiative reporter who works out of the Winnipeg Sun. The Local Journalism Initiative is funded by the Government of Canada.

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