Councillor Chu ready to pay own legal fees
Councillor Sean Chu says he doesn’t intend to have taxpayers foot any legal costs associated with his ongoing fight against a defamation lawsuit filed last year by one of his former campaign managers.
The Ward 4 councillor is being sued for $275,000. In court documents, Amanda Wilkie alleges Chu made defamatory comments when he spoke to a mutual acquaintance in November 2013, and on other occasions, shortly after he was first elected.
Chu declined to comment Thursday on the lawsuit, which appears headed to trial, but said he has no intention of asking the city to cover his legal fees or damages should he lose the case.
“Based on what Mayor Nenshi got through ... I think legally I could as well,” he said. “Any councillor in this position could ask. But would I ask? Probably not. I have no intention to.”
Earlier this week, Mayor Naheed Nenshi’s office revealed he racked up nearly $300,000 in legal fees battling a $6-million defamation lawsuit filed by home builder Cal Wenzel.
That two-year spat ended last year with Nenshi and the founder of Shane Homes issuing a joint statementin which the mayor apologized and retracted his characterization of Wenzel as a fictional mob boss during the 2013 municipal election campaign.
In March, council passed a motion granting the city solicitor the power to determine whether councillors, members of city boards, commissions, committees and authorities should be indemnified by taxpayers should they land in legal hot water.
This week, it was revealed the city paid Nenshi’s $299,728.59 legal bill, an amount the mayor now must pay back through fundraising efforts. In a letter to the ethics adviser, Nenshi proposed an independent committee solicit donations to be paid directly to the city.
A statement from the mayor’s office says the city solicitor decided Nenshi was “acting within the scope of his duties and therefore entitled to the benefit of the city’s indemnity for members of council.”
Chu said he believes his comments about Wilkie were made in the context of an election campaign and would not fall under his duties as a city councillor. Although he believes the lawsuit largely stems from the fact he is a public figure.
“If I (wasn’t) the councillor I don’t think the lawsuit would have been filed because everybody thinks the city’s got deep, deep pockets,” he said.
According to court documents, the plaintiff alleges Chu told Lynne Walker that Wilkie “owes me money ... took too much in expenses ... mishandled campaign funds” and took “thousands of dollars” from his campaign fund and used them for her own expenses.
“The statements about the plaintiff made by Mr. Chu to Ms. Walker were and are malicious, injurious and completely false,” Wilkie alleges in her lawsuit. “Such statements are extremely serious in nature and constitute a personal attack on the character of the plaintiff.”
None of the allegations have been proven in court.
In his statement of defence, Chu alleges Wilkie “failed to perform” her contractual duties, misappropriated campaign materials including an electors list, submitted “inflated” travel expenses and submitted an invoice from her father’s campaign in Ward 9.
In the document, Chu says his campaign paid those invoices to “avoid having a conflict” with Wilkie. He does state he told Walker that Wilkie had “taken things from him” and that he believed her expense claims were inflated.
But he denies any statements were “calculated by him to injure,” that she suffered any loss to her character and reputation, or that his actions caused her any embarrassment or humiliation.
Chu is seeking to have the lawsuit dismissed with costs.