Quesnel mayor files petition with BC Supreme Court to have sanctions dropped
QUESNEL, B.C. — Quesnel Mayor Ron Paull has filed a petition with the BC Supreme Court to have sanctions against him dropped.
On April 30, Quesnel city council voted unanimously to censure Paull, remove him from certain committees and regional boards, as well as stripping his travel and lobbying budgets. These actions were in response to reports that the mayor’s wife had distributed a book to community members that was challenging the harms of residential schools in Canada, and that the mayor himself had distributed the book at a meeting of the Cariboo Regional District.
The mayor filed a petition with the BC Supreme Court on May 29. In the petition, he argues that the sanctions are “not transparent, intelligible or justified and are therefore unreasonable.” The petition also mentions that the city “breached its duty of procedural fairness” toward Paull and that the power to censure is “not a tool to be wielded for cheap political gain.”
Paull’s petition also states that “council does not have the authority to prohibit the Mayor from claiming expenses under its travel policy or to remove his lobbying budget.“