Regina city councillor and lawyer Daniel LeBlanc says he has been let go from his place of work.
In a Facebook post dated Feb. 4, Leblanc said he was fired from Gerrand Rath Johnson LLP. “without cause” on Jan. 29 and will be starting his own firm.
“Employers in Saskatchewan are able to terminate without cause and that’s what was done here,” LeBlanc said.
“I’m keen to focus on transitioning to my new law firm, LeBlanc Law, where I’ll be able to do the work I’m passionate about and the work I went to law school to do.”
Gerrand Rath Johnson LLP confirmed to Global News LeBlanc no longer works there.
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“The circumstances of his departure are confidential, every employee has the right to confidentiality regarding their employment, and we respect that.”
LeBlanc sparked controversy when he brought forward a motion that would prevent businesses who sell or produce fossil fuel products from advertising or sponsoring with the City of Regina at Jan. 20’s executive committee meeting.
He withdrew the motion at council meeting on Jan. 27 with the support of his fellow councillors.
Saskatchewan Premier Scott Moe called the proposed motion “absurd” in a tweet which LeBlanc said “escalated” the situation.
“There are two important points about why I think that was inappropriate. One, is it was essentially a draft motion. At that point, it had been at the executive committee becoming a recommendation to city council. It wasn’t final,” Leblanc said.
“The second more important one, I think, is that it’s well within the city’s wheelhouse to make that sort of decision. We were elected to make those decisions and ought to be able to do that.”
LeBlanc said he has been dealing with tons of backlash ever since.
“The majority of the backlash was sort of coordinated by organized lobbyist groups. So, I would talk about the Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers, the Regina Chamber of Commerce. Groups like that organized people to contact us,” LeBlanc said.
“While some of that communication was respectful, a good portion of it involved sort of personal attacks and beyond personal attacks, some attempts to leverage influence over us.”
He said he was told to resign and even received threats against his family.
“I am confident that I was elected to do certain things, including taking bold action on climate change,” LeBlanc said.
“I promise people I do that and they put me in the position to fulfill those promises and now it’s up to me to do the best I can.”
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