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“I’m happy I stood up for what is right and maintained my integrity. Still, I can’t help thinking all of this could have been avoided if Valérie Plante had done her job,” former mayor of C.D.N.-N.D.G. says.
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Mayor Valérie Plante and the city of Montreal have settled out of court with former Côte-des-Neiges—Notre-Dame-de-Grâce borough mayor Sue Montgomery and her former chief of staff, Annalisa Harris, in an agreement that will see the city pay the pair $300,000 and acknowledge that it could have better managed its dispute with the pair.
Montgomery, a former Montreal Gazette reporter, was elected with Plante’s Projet Montréal party in 2017. However, Plante expelled Montgomery from the party when the latter refused to fire her chief of staff over a 2019 human resources report. It was suggested at the time that the report, written by investigators from the office of city comptroller general Alain Bond, had concluded that Harris harassed two civil servants, including the head of C.D.N.-N.D.G.’s civil service, the borough manager.
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Plante ordered Montgomery to fire Harris. However, Montgomery resisted, saying that she had not been allowed to read the comptroller general’s report.
Montgomery later filed a lawsuit against Plante, Bond and the city of Montreal for $153,000. Her lawsuit alleged that Plante and Bond made “false, defamatory, unfounded” statements in local news media that damaged Montgomery’s reputation.
Harris also filed suit for defamation, libel and age discrimination against Plante, Bond and the city and sought $182,500 in damages.
The city is expected to pay $130,000 to Montgomery and $170,000 to Harris as part of the settlement, sources and various media said on Thursday.
In a press release issued Thursday afternoon, the city wrote: “The city of Montreal takes note of the judgment of the Superior Court of December 11, 2020. The court determined that the city of Montreal should have provided a full copy of the (human resource department) reports to Ms. Montgomery as mayor of the borough and employer of her chief of staff, Annalisa Harris. The court also determined that the measure put in place by the (city) comptroller general in response to the report, isolating Ms. Harris from all officials in the borough, was unreasonable and should not have been imposed.”
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The statement, which is part of the settlement with Harris and Montgomery, also states that the city “recognizes that the (human resource) reports did not conclude that Ms. Montgomery herself committed actions affecting the work climate within her borough.”
It also acknowledges a Superior Court judgment in January 2022, which overturned decisions of the Quebec Municipal Commission (CMQ) that had found Montgomery committed ethics violations.
“According to the court, the CMQ failed in its duty of independence towards the city of Montreal which initiated the complaint, thereby vitiating the procedure undertaken against Ms. Montgomery.”
Asked to comment on Thursday, Montgomery said she’s satisfied that she and the city reached a settlement.
“It’s been the worst four years of my life and a very difficult time for my family, who had to witness my distress,” she said.
“But I’m happy I stood up for what is right and maintained my integrity. Still, I can’t help thinking all of this could have been avoided if Valérie Plante had done her job and read the infamous ‘harassment’ report and saw that there was nothing in it.”
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“I’m satisfied that I reached a settlement with the city of Montreal,” Harris told the Montreal Gazette. “I’m happy that this ordeal is behind me, that I can move onto other things. I’m really grateful for my lawyers, for my family, for my friends, for the people of Côte-des-Neiges—N.D.G. who really stood behind me, and especially Sue Montgomery, who took the courageous position not to fire me without evidence and paid a big price personally because of that.”
As part of the settlement, Harris is to drop her workplace harassment case against Plante, Bond and the borough manager, Stéphane Plante, before Quebec’s Tribunal administratif du travail.
“I do think it’s bittersweet because this could have all been avoided,” Harris added. “Now I’ve read the report, and in the report there’s no discussion of disciplinary actions, there’s no evidence, there’s no proof, there’s only hearsay.”
Montgomery formed her own party for the 2021 municipal election, but lost her bid to win a second term as borough mayor.
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