A chief has launched a defamation suit against a Manitoba Hydro board member and three other members of his First Nation, in which he claims they falsely accused him of murder.
A lawyer for Gambler First Nation and Chief David LeDoux filed the statement of claim in the Brandon Court of King’s Bench in mid-January. It names Hydro board and First Nation member Vern Kalmakoff and three others as defendants.
The lawsuit seeks a judgment of $500,000, $250,000 in punitive, aggravated and exemplary damages and other damages to be determined by the court.
The suit alleges Kalmakoff, who lives in Brandon, publicly announced his support for the re-election of LeDoux at a meeting of members in 2022.
Kalmakoff requested favours to help relocate his business onto Gambler’s urban reserve in Brandon and provide a “substantially lower lease rate for his business” than others that were waiting to take an available lease, the suit claims.
“After Chief LeDoux refused to provide Mr. Kalmakoff with a substantially lower lease rate… Mr. Kalmakoff began making false and malicious public statements,” the claim alleges.
The court documents say the statements were made to “unfairly instill mistrust” in the First Nation and the chief and to damage their reputations.
No statements of defence have been filed.
The lawsuit seeks an injunction that would bar the defendants from making other defamatory statements and from publishing a Facebook page, created in July 2024, where alleged defamatory posts have been made.
LeDoux’s claim alleges Kalmakoff and the other defendants had accused him of fraud, abuse of authority and poor governance in a Zoom meeting and in Facebook posts.
The statement of claim alleges the accusations levied against LeDoux, who’s been chief of the First Nation near Russell since 2012, included allegations he committed a murder and took out a contract to have a woman killed.
Kalmakoff and two of the defendants made those claims during Zoom meetings in July 2024, the court papers allege.
The suit claims the Hydro board member and those defendants claimed, during the Zoom meetings, that the First Nation is “handled as a private business” by the chief, his wife and another woman; that LeDoux was elected chief by default; and that he has no business experience.
The suit claims the defendants had accused LeDoux of unjustly evicting a family and refusing to haul water to their home on the Facebook page.
Kalmakoff, a business entrepreneur in western Manitoba, was named to the Crown corporation’s board shortly after the NDP won the 2023 election.
The lawsuit argues that by virtue of Kalmakoff’s position, he has the potential to inflict “significant damage and irreparable harm” to the First Nation during current discussions with Hydro.
Hydro spokesman Peter Chura declined to comment on the suit while the matter is before the courts. He did not say whether Kalmakoff remains on the board.
A spokesman for Adrien Sala, the minister responsible for Hydro, declined comment.
erik.pindera@freepress.mb.ca
Erik Pindera
Reporter
Erik Pindera is a reporter for the Free Press, mostly focusing on crime and justice. The born-and-bred Winnipegger attended Red River College Polytechnic, wrote for the community newspaper in Kenora, Ont. and reported on television and radio in Winnipeg before joining the Free Press in 2020. Read more about Erik.
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