Defiant Gutowski Sues Fellow Councilors For Defamation

Jeff Green | Sep 11, 2013

Seeking $1 million in damages

Back in May, David Jones, a member of Frontenac County Council from Frontenac Islands, put forward an unusual motion.

The motion claimed that Janet Gutowski, the county warden, had breached her oath of office by “uttering promises and rewards in an effort to conspire with Staff to move County Councillors to vote ‘in a biased, corrupt, or any other improper manner’”.

The motion then resolved that county council “rescind all the privileges of the office immediately”.

It also directed that “Councillor Gutowski’s peddling of political favours” be referred to the Minister of Municipal Affairs, and asked the Township of Central Frontenac to appoint a replacement “as soon as possible”

In speaking to his motion, Jones said that the influence peddling he was referring to took place earlier this spring, after council had rejected the 2013 County budget in April by a 6-3 vote.

Jones said that he received an email from a “member of council” (later confirmed to have been North Frontenac Mayor Bud Clayton) and that in the email it was asserted that Warden Gutowski offered to cut the Fairmount Home budget by $130,000 and would step down as warden in exchange for a yes vote by Clayton.

For his part, Clayton later told the News that Gutowski had never promised him that the Fairmount budget would be cut, although Clayton did meet with Fairmount Home staff in April to talk about their budget, a meeting that Gutowski attended via teleconference. Clayton did vote in favour of the 2013 budget on May 2, which was approved in a 7-2 vote.

“At that point, I thought we needed to get a budget passed,” he told the News later.

Even though Clayton’s account of the contents of his email differed from that of Jones, Bud Clayton, along with Jones, Dennis Doyle and John McDougall all supported motion by Jones on May 15 .

When the motion was approved, Janet Gutowski did not vacate the chambers. Instead she carried on chairing the meeting.

As CAO Liz Savill explained to Jones when he asked why this was happening, under the Municipal Act Council does not have the jurisdiction to remove one of their fellow councilors. She said she would follow through with the referral to the minister.

For her part, Gutowski said she would be consulting her lawyer

A month later, a lawyer’s letter was sent to the four councilors who had supported the ‘influence peddling’ motion, asking them to apologize and rescind the motion, and saying if they did not, legal action would be taken.

Last week, as Council was about to meet in a Committee of the Whole session in order to hear a presentation about a Council Code of Conduct, three of those in attendance, Frontenac Islands Mayor Doyle, John McDougall from South Frontenac, and Bud Clayton, were presented with brown paper envelopes that contained a notice of claim issued by the Registrar of the Ottawa Court House. David Jones was not at the meeting and was subsequently served at his home.

The claim, which was submitted by an Ottawa lawyer, Keith MacLaren, calls for “General and Special Damages for defamation in the amount of $1,000,000".

It says that the defendants “accused the Plaintiff publicly of peddling political favours” and that those “defamatory words demean the Plaintiff in her profession or calling.”

It also says that the “Defendants knew, at the time the defamatory words were spoken, that the words were untrue”, and that the defendants “acted in bad faith, with malice aforethought.”

While members of Council are protected against libel laws when speaking at council meetings by virtue of what is called “qualified privilege”, which applies during council meetings, the claim says “The Defendants are not entitled to claim qualified privilege in all of the circumstances. The defendants were not acting in furtherance of their duties as public officials.”

In justifying the call for a such a large payment, the claim says the “defamatory words” were calculated to injure Gutowski and “and she has been injured in her credit, character and reputation by way of the profession as a politician”. It goes so far as to say it could cause her the “loss of political office and the loss of employment opportunities in the future.”

The defendants were granted 20 days to file a statement of defence, which can be stretched to 30 days.

Neither Janet Gutowski or any of the defendants in the case whom we contacted were willing to speak publicly about the case. It is still to be determined if the defendants will appeal for county funds to cover some, or all, of their legal fees.