Saskatchewan Court of Appeal overturns ruling on Lighthouse executive director

A court ruling that removed the executive director of the Lighthouse in Saskatoon has been overturned by the Saskatchewan Court of Appeal.

On March 20, Judge Barrington-Foote ruled that Don Windels had been denied procedural fairness because he was not given the opportunity to respond to the case presented against him.

“However, Mr. Windels, like any litigant, has a right to a fair hearing and to see that justice is done in accordance with the law. I have concluded that he was not accorded those rights,”  Barrington-Foote noted in the court docket.

“There were very significant breaches of the duty of fairness in the process that led to the Oppression Fiat.”

Decisions made in previous trials including oppression remedies, known as any wrongs done to a stakeholder, will now have to be remitted to the Court of King’s Bench.

“Simply put, he was not afforded the opportunity to know and meet the case against him,” Barrington-Foote said.

A court decision in late February placed the Lighthouse in interim receivership.

In early February, Jerome Hepfner and Twila Reddekopp — two members of the board — filed affidavits claiming that the Lighthouse governing body hadn’t been making decisions in the best interest of the organization, including mismanagement of money.

The accounting firm MNP LLP has taken control of the non-profit organization and is scheduled to report back to court with its findings on April 13th.

— with files from Global’s Brooke Kruger 

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