Oro-Medonte mayor suing resident over online claims

By Patrick Bales, The Orillia Packet & Times

The mayor of Oro-Medonte Township has launched a lawsuit against one of his constituents.

Harry Hughes has taken an unnamed resident to court over claims made against the mayor in the comment section of the Orillia Packet & Times’ website. The defamation case will be heard in Barrie small-claims court this summer.

The Packet & Times, a Postmedia newspaper, is not a defendant in this case.

Hughes said the resident was using a “fictitious name” to spread misinformation about the mayor.

“When I watched the wording that was used by what I’ll call a blogger … it was very evident that they were not following (the paper’s commenting) criteria,” the mayor said. “The person (was) not just attacking me, but also attacking my family. At the same time, (the person) accused me of a criminal act, which was accepting money from a developer.”

Hughes would only say the constituent he is suing is a member of local water and farmland advocacy group AWARE Simcoe and did not identify who the person is. He said he deduced the person’s real identity based on the kind of comments being made online.

Once Hughes had an idea who was making the comments, the mayor said he wrote that person a letter, offering an in-person meeting to resolve the issue between them. According to Hughes, the person replied with confirmation of having made the post and declined the mayor’s invitation.

“‘If you want to deal with me, take me to court,'” Hughes recalled the person as writing back.

The mayor’s allegations have not been proven in court.

Sandy Agnew, vice-chair of AWARE and one of the Oro-Medonte directors on its board, confirmed one of the organization’s members was at the centre at the lawsuit, adding it was not him.

“There is a lawsuit before the courts,” he said. “I don’t feel like I should comment because it is before the courts.”

Agnew stressed, however, AWARE is not a defendant in the case, and the only connection it has is the person being sued happens to be part of the organization.

Hughes said he isn’t taking the person to court simply because criticism was voiced online. Rather, he feels his integrity has been attacked.

“I’m not able to sit back quietly and merely accept the fact they can say that and get away with it,” Hughes said.

To avoid any influence by anyone during elections, the mayor added, he does not “accept donations to my election campaign.”

“To have someone do this kind of thing and then refuse to deal with it, other than virtually forcing me to go to court, I couldn’t sit back and do anything else,” Hughes said.

The parties will be in court July 19.