Quesnel's mayor Ron Paull has won his legal challenge against the City of Quesnel after council set sanctions on him.
The case came about after a following the controversy where Paull was accused of sharing a book denying the realities of residential schools with members of the Cariboo Regional District during a meeting.
The three resolutions adopted by the Quesnel city council were quashed by a judge for reasons of procedural unfairness. Those three resolutions include censuring the mayor, removing his travel and lobbying budget and removing him from committees including being a representative on the CRD.
While Paull's censure was removed and travel and lobbying budgets restored, the court decision by Justice Veenstra at the Vancouver Provincial Court said Paull "sought further orders related to board and committee positions. In my view, I do not have enough information with respect to the potential impacts of any such order."
Paull had argued the resolution made on the April 2 meeting, in which council asked staff to create a report on censure and sanctions, was not done through the proper procedures set out by legislation. The report was given to council on April 18. The court ruled that Paull should have been given two weeks before the report went to a council meeting, but it was instead read at the April 30 meeting.
The Justice found that at the April 2 meeting, council was requesting an informational package on what censure and sanctions might look like. The report distributed to council included the resolutions that imposed those and was not just used for information.
While the city argued in court that Paull waived that requirement, the Justice found he was not given the required information to waive the required two-week notice period.
At the April 30 meeting, Paull's censure and sanctions were put in place.
"The April 18 Report does not meet the procedural fairness requirements owed to Mayor Paull in these circumstances. The Report is not a clear and unambiguous document setting out the allegations that would underlie a motion of censure and sanction," court documents say.
The Justice also found that the reasons for censure on April 30 are not clearly grounds for sanctions and censure of Paull. The reasons the Justice said were given were not for distributing the book at the CRD meeting, which Paull denies, but for what council called a failure of leadership and accountability on Paull's part.
"I do not need to decide whether the actions of Council violated the reasonableness standard," the Justice said in the court documents. "I leave open the possibility that in a future case, resolutions of censure and sanction absent any finding of misconduct might be subject to reasonableness review."
The controversy surrounding Paull began when his wife, Pat Morton, shared the book with the mother of Coun. Tony Goulet. When word of this spread to Lhtako Dene First Nation, a letter was sent to the city asking them to reaffirm terms of the memorandum of understanding between the nation and the city. Council, including Paull, voted to reaffirm those terms, to meet with residential school survivors from the nation and to denounce the book.
Two days later Paull attended the CRD meeting where he is alleged to have distributed the book. He says it wasn't about sharing the book but to use it as an example in a debate about books that feature LGBTQ+ themes being too accessible to young people.
The sanctions and censure against Paull, which have been quashed by the courts, were voted for unanimously by the rest of council. Since then he has been unable to represent the city at certain conferences and was asked not to attend Billy Barker Days to avoid controversy.
Paull has also not publicly apologized to First Nations about any harm he has done.
The March 4 council meeting did not have any open discussions on the court case or the controversy surrounding Paull.
