A former City of Windsor employee, Thom Hunt, has filed a lawsuit claiming wrongful dismissal, seeking $2.8 million in total.
Hunt was a city planner for 25 years with the city.
The statement of claim alleges:
On January 24, 2023, Windsor nonetheless gave notice of the termination of Mr. Hunt’s employment with 18 months’ working notice. The decision was made in bad faith, for political reasons, and in retaliation against Mr. Hunt. Among other things, Mr. Hunt had issued a series of public reports – in his capacity as Chair of the Regional Planning Commissioners of Ontario (RPCO) – which were critical of the provincial government’s legislative reforms connected to development of the Ontario Greenbelt and the provincial housing crisis.
It added the work notice period was “excessive and humiliating”, claiming the city “deliberately marginalized and disparaged Mr. Hunt, undermining his ability to carry out his functions or maintain the professional independence necessary to serve the public interest”.
Speaking on AM800's The Shift, Hunt's lawyer, Danny Kastner says as the lawsuit alleges, Hunt was not terminated due to poor performance but for other reasons.
"In the process of being pushed out, he was treated in a way that made it look as if he can't be trusted, made it look as if he is not really doing his work, when in fact behind the scenes he was being prevented from doing it. So there's longstanding reputational damage. The impact that that has on Mr. Hunt's career."
He says Mr. Hunt was informed by the city he was being terminated with 18 months’ working notice.
"The affect of that is to make him effectively a lame duck employee for a year and a half and so it effectively meant keeping him under wraps, keeping him under control, not allowing him to speak and engage."
Kastner says he's looking forward to hearing the response to the lawsuit from the city.
"We also look forward to what will be part of this lawsuit, as it always is, which is an opportunity to see what was behind the scenes. What documents reveal about who was behind the decisions, who was involved, what they said the reasons were in private sessions. That is also part of this process."
In response to the lawsuit, the City of Windsor said:
We are aware of the statement of claim filed by Thom Hunt against the City of Windsor. The City denies all of the allegations and will defend itself accordingly. As this has now become a legal matter, we will refrain from further comment and allow the legal process to take its course.
None of the allegations have been proven in court.
-with files from CTV Windsor