Former councillor wins small award from RM of Sherwood

Tim Probe has dragged himself into a courtroom once again, but this time he’s leaving with cash — though it’s significantly less than what he wanted.

Probe was a councillor in the Rural Municipality of Sherwood, outside Regina, starting in 2007. It was about five years later when some legal problems happened within the RM over a proposed development.

Between those problems, some wrangling over Probe not recusing himself from a vote and charges of corruption and breach of trust which Probe was acquitted of, Probe has been in and out of court a fair bit over the past 10 years.

In this latest case, Probe sued the RM for the legal fees he has accumulated through all this, totalling $325,946.12.

In this latest action, the judge ruled the RM was not required to pay any of Probe’s legal fees. In his arguments, Probe’s lawyer talked about Probe acting in good faith. Looking at the agreed statement of facts and comments from judges in previous cases, Justice J.P. Morrall more than disagreed with that.

“I would find the level of conduct to be somewhere closer to bad faith than good faith,” wrote Morrall.

Probe also wanted $27,150, which he and the RM agreed is the total of the honoraria Probe was not paid between October of 2016 (when the ombudsman recommended council bring an action to remove him and he stopped attending meetings) and January of 2018 (when court ordered his seat vacated).

Looking at some of the language in a previous decision, the judge did award Probe the honoraria.

Because Probe’s win was so limited, Morrall also awarded $1,000 in costs to the RM of Sherwood.