Defamation suit : ex-mayor of Brossard will not be heard in supreme Court

Archival Photo Chantal Poirier
Jean-Marc Pelletier, former mayor of Brossard

QMI agency

Thursday, march 8, 2018 10:48

UPDATE
Thursday, march 8, 2018 10:48

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OTTAWA – The former mayor of Brossard Jean-Marc Pelletier will finally no compensation of seven councillors for comments he deemed defamatory.

Indeed, the supreme Court of Canada refused to hear his case Thursday.

Mr. Pelletier continued to slander Serge Séguin, Marc Benoît, Pierre O’donoughue, Monique Won, Claudio Benedetti, Zaki Thomas and Daniel Lucier.

The leader city had launched her lawsuit after being defeated in the 2009 elections. He blamed advisers to have caused his defeat by a smear campaign.

In the media, the advisers had, for example, compared to Mr. Pelletier at the sports mascot Youppi and hinted that he was suffering from Alzheimer’s.

The ex-mayor had known a first victory in 2015 before the superior Court. Judge Pierre Jasmin had then directed the consultants to pay 375 000 $ for pecuniary losses and moral damages and punitive damages. But last may, the Court of appeal had reversed the decision of the court of first instance, arguing that the councillors were “in the context of a political confrontation-partisan”. This judgment is maintained with the refusal of the supreme Court to consider this case.

With the exception of Mrs. Won, all the advisors referred to in the complaint had been elected in 2005 under the banner of Democracy Brossard, the party of Jean-Marc Pelletier. In October 2006, they had left this training to become independent and had begun to oppose the mayor.