Quesnel, B.C., Mayor Ron Paull has won a lawsuit against the city after facing censure and being barred from committee involvement due to complaints he brought a book about residential schools to a meeting.
Councillors voted to take away Paull’s travel expenses and ban him from participating in committees last April after he was accused of sharing a book that was critical of the media’s coverage of alleged graves found at residential school sites.
Paull said he brought the book to a regional district meeting and showed it to two colleagues on March 22, 2024.
The book is titled “Grave Error: How the Media Misled Us (and the Truth about Residential Schools)” by Thomas Flanagan and C.P. Champion. It contains a series of essays that examines the media’s response to the May 2021 announcement of the discovery of a site at the Kamloops Indian Residential School said by the Tk’emlúps te Secwépemc First Nations to be a mass grave site for indigenous children.
“I did not express any opinion about the Book. My interactions with both Directors lasted less than a minute,” Paull said, according to the court record published March 3.
Council said the mayor’s decision to bring the book to the meeting damaged relationships between the city and the nearby Lhatko Dene Nation. The indigenous community refused to work with Paull or council after the accusations against the mayor came to light.
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Paull took issue with council’s actions, telling the court he had not received sufficient notice regarding an April 30, 2024, meeting, where decisions were taken to censure him. He said council’s decision was “procedurally unfair” because he was not informed council would be considering resolutions to censure and sanction him.
The city argued Paull had waived his right to two weeks’ notice because he had sent an email to the city manager saying the meeting could proceed.
B.C. Supreme Court Justice Hugh Veenstra ruled in favour of Paull in a March 3 judicial review, saying the resolutions against the mayor should be quashed on grounds of procedural fairness.
Justice Veenstra said the city’s arguments were inconsistent.
“Counsel argued at one point that it does not matter what happened at the March 22, 2024 Cariboo Regional District meeting; then at another point, argued that it is significant that Mayor Paull had the Book at that meeting, regardless of whether he was promoting it or talking about it as a subject of a potential ban,” he said in the court decision.
The city said actions were not taken against Paull because of any distribution of the book, but rather, that he failed to “show leadership and be accountable,” according to the court document.
“The City submits that in considering the Mayor’s leadership and accountability, Council has to be able to take into account the City’s relationship with local First Nations,” court documents said.
Justice Veenstra said it is unclear whether cases in which councillors allege a colleague has not shown leadership can lead to censure if no misconduct has occurred.
City Plans to ‘Move Forward’
The city is moving forward after the decision, manager Joel McKay said in an emailed statement.
“The City welcomes a decision that allows us to move forward,” McKay said. “At this point, administration remains focused on supporting and implementing Council’s vision and goals.”
The Epoch Times attempted to contact Paull but did receive a response by publication time.
He assumed the role of mayor in 2022 after having been a member of the council since 2014.
Book Troubles
One of the authors of “Grave Error: How the Media Misled Us (and the Truth about Residential Schools)” previously told The Epoch Times people have made claims about the book without first reading it.
Flanagan, professor emeritus of political science at the University of Calgary, said most children at residential schools died from diseases such as tuberculosis. He said there is no evidence of children being murdered at the schools.
“Not a single child burial has been found anywhere in connection with a residential school,” he said. “Ground penetrating radar shows only soil disturbances and does not demonstrate a burial. In several cases where such soil disturbances have been tested by excavation, nothing has been found.”
In a March 19 letter to Quesnel council, members of the Lhatko Dene Nation said “calling into question” what they went through “is a slap in our people’s collective faces,” according to the court decision.
The letter said several members of the First Nation had attended residential schools and “suffer through the long-term trauma of what they went through.” It also said the book “adds to that hurt.”
Lhatko Dene Nation is an 11-minute drive from Quesnel, a city of approximately 23,000. The communities are located 400 kilometres north of Vancouver.
