Judge orders Sudbury city councillor to pay $63K in court costs

Bill Leduc, councillor for Ward 11 in Greater Sudbury, has been ordered to pay $63,000 in legal fees, expenses of defendants in lawsuits he initiated that were

A Sudbury judge has ordered Sudbury Ward 11 Coun. Bill Leduc to pay more than $63,000 in court costs for lawsuits he launched against a private citizen and the City of Greater Sudbury.

Leduc is accused of violating the Municipal Elections Act related to campaign contributions and expenses in the 2022 vote.

The city’s election compliance audit committee recommended he be charged for violating the Act after complaints by Anastasia Rioux, a private citizen who raised a number of questions about Leduc’s spending during the 2022 election campaign.

In turn, Leduc sued the committee -- represented by Greater Sudbury -- and Rioux. He accused Rioux of defamation and the city of “the tort of misfeasance in public office.”

The lawsuits were later dropped, but both the city and Rioux applied to the courts to have Leduc pay their legal costs.

In a decision dated Jan. 6, Judge Patrick J. Boucher of the Superior Court of Justice ordered Leduc to pay Rioux $33,055.63, or all of the legal fees she spent defending the lawsuit.

Boucher said that Rioux brought what’s known as an ‘anti-SLAPP’ motion, which means that she was arguing Leduc’s suit was intended to stifle “public debate on matters of public importance out of fear of legal action.”

It was important to award her full legal fees to send a message that lawsuits aimed at discouraging public debate come at a cost, Boucher said.

“Similarly minded ratepayers, forced to expend their own funds to defend such a lawsuit, may think twice about speaking out about matters of public importance,” the judge wrote in his decision.

“Rioux’s bill of costs is fair and reasonable in the circumstances. The action publicly attacked Rioux’s integrity. Her response was proportionate. The bulk of the work on the file was completed by a junior lawyer at a reasonable rate.”

Greater Sudbury also sought full repayment of its legal costs of $45,339.76, or at least partial repayment of $30,454.61, which Boucher granted.

Elevated costs

He said the election compliance audit committee was operating as “a quasi-judicial body” ensuring municipal law was being followed.

“All of this was in the context of a ratepayer lawfully seeking a determination of whether an incumbent municipal councillor had conducted himself in accordance with municipal election finance laws,” the judge said.

“In my view, an elevated costs award between partial and substantial indemnity costs is warranted in this case. I accordingly fix costs to Greater Sudbury in the amount of $30,000 all-inclusive.”

Leduc’s new lawyer, Aniket Bhatt, argued that should any costs be awarded, the court should order his former lawyer to pay them. Leduc said that his former lawyer missed filing deadlines and was responsible for a number of adjournments and delays.

But Boucher wrote that the legal costs were largely incurred after “all the work of the defendants was completed.”

“Save for some brief administrative court attendances, the costs incurred by the defendants were a result of the action commenced by the plaintiff and the successful motions brought by the defendants, which the plaintiff chose to defend until the eleventh hour,” the judge wrote.

“It is for these reasons that the defendants’ motions were granted, and the plaintiff’s motion is dismissed.”

In an interview Jan. 7 with Alana Everson of CTV News Northern Ontario, Leduc said he only dropped the lawsuits so that his Municipal Election Act case could proceed in the courts.

“I want to expedite the election compliance audit committee (process), where I know I will be proven innocent,” he said.