Former councillor to pay $2,600 for punching reeve

A “strained and acrimonious” relationship between the reeve of a rural municipality near Wynyard and a former RM councillor erupted into violence in the reeve’s farm yard in 2017.

Following a trial in provincial court earlier this year, Judge Michelle Marquette convicted the former councillor, Leonard Borowski, of assault causing bodily harm to RM of Emerald Reeve Morris Karakochuk.

Over the course of the trial, “it was apparent to the Court that the relationship between Mr. Karakochuk and Mr. Borowski is not amicable,” Marquette noted in her written decision.

Karakochuk has been reeve of the RM for seven years. Borowski served on the same council for 10 to 12 months in 2011 and 2012.

“The relationship between the parties during this time can best be described as strained,” Marquette wrote. “During his term as a councillor, a motion of council restricted Mr. Borowski’s attendance at the RM office to fifteen minutes and required him to make an appointment prior to attending to enable another employee or council member to be present in the office.

“Mr. Karakochuk provided undisputed evidence that in the past the parties had verbal exchanges but never any physical altercations. (He) testified that since Mr. Borowski was no longer a councillor, his direct interaction with him was minimal. However, it is clear from the evidence at trial that Mr. Borowski raised a variety of issues when he was on and off council concerning the operation of the RM including allegations concerning the misappropriation of funds by the RM.”

The March 11, 2017 incident unfolded when Borowski drove into Karakochuk’s yard and confronted him, saying, “I hear you’ve been saying bad things about me.”

Karakochuk told Borowski to leave his property, court heard.

At that point, Borowski “punched him in the face with his fist, striking his left cheekbone just below his eye,” then punched him again in the same place, Marquette noted in her decision. Karakochuk fell to his knees in the snow and Borowski punched him four more times, twice in the neck and twice on the back of the head, before leaving the scene, the judge wrote.

Karakochuk sustained a laceration to his cheek, leaving a permanent scar, and a bruised and swollen eye. He was treated at the Wynyard Health Centre and discharged that day.

Borowski turned himself in to the Wynyard RCMP detachment four days later, after RCMP were unable to locate him at home.

Borowski’s lawyer cross-examined Karakochuk extensively during the trial, suggesting Karakochuk was the aggressor and sustained the cut to his face as the two men wrestled on the ground. In her decision, Marquette said Karakochuk’s evidence was not shaken on cross-examination and he testified in a “forthright manner.”

Borowski was sentenced on Aug. 23 to serve one year of probation and pay a $2,000 fine and $600 surcharge. During his probation, he is ordered to have no contact with Karakochuk or a neighbour of Karakochuk’s who testified for the Crown during the trial, and to refrain from posting about them on social media.