A judge has ordered the Windsor/Essex County Humane Society to hold a new annual general members' meeting, ruling that hundreds of eligible members were wrongly excluded from a key governance vote.
The decision from the Ontario Superior Court of Justice centres on a proposed overhaul of how the Windsor/Essex County Humane Society is governed.
Before members could vote on that change, the board declined to recognize more than 200 newly signed-up members - many of them volunteers, donors or employees.
The court found the board acted "arbitrarily and in bad faith," ruling those members were entitled to vote, and the bylaw approving the change was declared void.
Lawyer Andrew Colautti, who represented the members behind the legal challenge, says the case was never about whether a closed model was the right direction - but about who had a say.
"The only point was should we be allowing the 224 members, who are for the most part volunteers, donors, employees, should we be letting them vote in deciding the future of the Humane Society?"
He says the members are ecstatic.
"I think it's a vindication for them. It's been a long, drawn out legal fight and a legal battle. They're elated to be vindicated in their position on the whole thing."
Colautti says the ruling could have broader implications beyond Windsor.
"That's a really important precedent in Canadian jurisprudence because that Ontario Not-for-Profit Corporations Act is a new statute, relatively new, so there's not very many cases that interpret this."
Under the ruling, the Humane Society must hold a new AGM within 60 days, allowing all eligible members to attend and vote. Any business conducted at meetings held after the original vote has been nullified.
In a statement, Humane Society executive director Lynette Bain said the organization respects the court's decision and is reviewing it with legal counsel.
"Our priority remains the welfare of the animals in our care and the stability of the services our community relies on," she wrote.
"We are committed to transparency and will provide further updates once we have had an opportunity to assess next steps, including the court ordered Annual General Members' meeting."
The judge noted the ruling does not affect day-to-day operations or automatically change leadership, but instead resets the governance process so members can properly weigh in.