Côte-des-Neiges—Notre-Dame-de-Grâce borough Mayor Sue Montgomery has lost her bid for an injunction to prevent other members of her borough’s council from communicating with the borough director.
Quebec Superior Court Judge Janick Perrault rejected the request for a six-month safeguard order against a resolution adopted by the borough council while she sues the City of Montreal to cancel the resolution permanently.
In a 10-page ruling, Perrault wrote that as borough mayor, Montgomery does not have the power to limit verbal communication between other elected officials and the borough director, and added further that other CDN-NDG councillors speaking with the borough’s director does not impede her ability to do her job.
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Perrault went on to add that granting the injunction “would risk creating an unhealthy work environment where the slightest deviation would give rise to contempt of court.” She did acknowledge that Montgomery’s lawsuit to permanently overturn the resolution could ultimately prove successful, but until that lawsuit is heard in court, “there is no urgency” that would permit the injunction being granted.
The resolution that prompted the legal action from Montgomery came in response to an order she issued last year dictating that no other elected official would be permitted to speak directly with the borough director outside of borough council meetings, and requiring that she be copied on all written communication between borough councillors and the director. Montgomery’s lawsuit, first filed several weeks ago, claims the borough council has wrested her authority away from her.
The councillors say they had been accustomed to communicating directly with the borough director under Montgomery’s predecessors as mayor, and they found it more difficult to do their jobs under the new order.
Montgomery declined an interview request from Global News.