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Who will pay for the legal bills?
trust in relation to the emails. The content of the emails concerns an al- leged plan to force the resignation of Daniel Gatien, who at the time was chief adminis- trator for the city. Gatien had defamation lawsuit pending against Lalonde at the time for remarks made in The Musketeer Journal, a publication which Lalonde had co-founded. Émard-Chabot noted that all elected council members have protection against lawsuits while they are sitting “if they were acting in the role of a councillor or as part of a municipal corporation.” They can expect the municipality to provide financial aid for legal costs against civil suits in such a situ- ation. That legal sanctity does not extend to criminal charges or situations outside of municipal affairs. “If they’re not acting on a corporation or municipal business matter,” said Émard- Chabot, “then it would be up to the council to decide if they want to cover the (legal) costs.” The situation that led to the OPP inves- tigation and charges first began with the three as council-elect members and then after they were sworn into office. Émard- Chabot expressed doubt that would make any legal difference, regarding the breach of trust charge itself given that Gatien was still at that time the city’s chief administra- tor. “I would be surprised if a court would split hairs,”he said. “The question, from a munici- *CONSTRUCTION DE BÉTON; * PLANCHERS RADIANTS; * PLAFOND DE 9 PIEDS (REZ-DE-CHAUSSÉE) ET CATHÉDRALE AU DEUXIÈME; * GRAND BALCON * COIN LAURIER / ST-JACQUES AU COEUR DE ROCKLAND!
the municipality to provide aid with legal costs. That would require a council resolu- tion and no such request has been made at present. “I would expect they would have to de- clare conflict of interest and remove them from deliberations and voting,” Émard- Chabot said, adding that they would stand to benefit from any such resolution which would automatically put them in conflict. He noted that even informal “behind-the- scenes” discussions with any of the other council members on the matter could put any one of them in a conflict of interest situ- ation. “That’s definitely black-and-white,” he said. “It would be a clear infraction under the Ontario Municipal Conflict of Interest Act.” In the end, Émard-Chabot noted, if any or all of the three facing charges chose to ask for the city to help with their legal costs, the decision to approve or reject a financial aid resolution would depend on the remaining sitting members of council.
GREGGCHAMBERLAIN gregg.chamberlain@eap.on.ca
ROCKLAND | Who pays the bill when the breach of trust case against the mayor of Clarence-Rockland and two councillors goes to court? A legal expert on municipal law observed that may depend on the will of the rest of city council. Stéphane Émard-Chabot noted that the whole situation is an “either/or” case. “There’s no automatic answer to that,” Émard-Chabot said during an Oct. 5 phone interview. Émard-Chabot is a practising lawyer, liv- ing in Orléans, who has served on Ottawa city council. He was a professor at La Cité collégiale, served as an assistant dean at the University of Ottawa, and also held a post on municipal law and other legal matters for the National Justice Institute. Mayor Marcel Guibord and Councillors Di- ane Choinière and Guy Félio are scheduled for their first court appearance on Oct. 23 to enter a plea on the breach of trust charge against each of them. The charges resulted from an OPP in- vestigation of a series of email exchanges between them and local lawyer and busi- nessman Stéphane J. Lalonde soon after the November 2010 municipal election. Lalonde is also charged with breach of trust and with counselling to commit breach of
pal law perspective is, is that corporation business? The thumbnail assessment is that it’s quite doubtful.” If the mayor and two councillors take on financial responsibility for their own legal defence, then there is nothing for council’s concern. Émard-Chabot noted that the situ- ation changes if any or all of them ask for
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