The Financial Story Behind My Legal Battle
In my last video, I announced the conclusion of my defamation lawsuit against the Waterloo Region District School Board and former Chair Scott Piatkowski. My lawsuit against WRDSB resulted in two court victories, at both the Divisional Court and the Ontario Court of Appeal, before being resolved through a mediated settlement. The decisions of these judges included important statements about the free expression rights of Canadians and the responsibilities of government actors to tell the truth.
Today, I reveal the financial story behind my legal battle.
When I was defamed four years ago and found myself in need of justice, my lawyer estimated that the cost of a lawsuit against the school board would be at least $100,000 and more if the Board attempted an anti-SLAPP manoeuvre. I asked how long this would take, and he told me to prepare for a two-year battle. I was shocked by the time and money required.
It’s a very good thing that I didn’t know that both the money and the years required would actually double! Yet, miraculously, you, my supporters, always provided enough money for each stage of legal action.
And now, here are the numbers:
The total cost of my legal fees was $248,814.38.
(My lawyer’s account statement is posted below.)
Of that, the Court ordered WRDSB to pay $37,500.
This reduced my net legal fees to $211,314.38.
On the funding side, GoFundMe contributions, after fees, totalled $141,139.80.
Donations received outside of GoFundMe came to $77,457.61
For a grand total of $218,597.41 raised.
After all my legal fees were paid, the surplus is $7,283.03.
I promised that, if there was a surplus, it would be donated to a charity that supports the Charter rights of Canadians. It was an easy choice. The Justice Centre for Constitutional Freedoms is the recipient of the legal fund surplus, and I am adding a personal donation to bring the total up to $10,000.00. The confirmation of the donation to JCCF is posted below.
Why did I choose The Justice Centre for Constitutional Freedoms? Because JCCF funds lawyers for cases where Canadians’ constitutional rights have been violated. This incredible organization understands the financial burden that ordinary Canadians face when seeking justice, and they have a practical plan to help if this happens to you. To learn more about the work they do, I encourage you to visit their website and view the stories of ordinary Canadians seeking justice.
It’s hard to believe that my legal journey has finally come to an end. With all my heart, thank you for your financial support and messages of encouragement throughout my four-year marathon. I simply could not have fought back without you.
I know what motivated you. You want teachers and parents to be heard because you love your children and grandchildren, and you want them to be properly educated. You want them to graduate into adulthood with a healthy body and a resilient, educated mind. Let’s all continue our fight for an educational system characterized by the pursuit of truth, respect for families and the well-being of Canada’s children.
Legal Invoice - Statement of Account
Confirmation of Donation to JCCF
Well done Carolyn and team! Your case has been on my mind for years, happy to see the resolution in your favour.
Thank you for not forgetting what happened to me!
Did they WANT to settle? If so, why did they NOT have to pay your court costs?
I can understand why they wouldn’t want to go to trial, I can see why they wouldn’t want to expose the machinations of Piatkowski, who is on the public payroll … and a public servant … But then why would the judge make YOU pay the legal fees? YOU RIGHTLY took those people to court to seek justice. It should NEVER have happened. It is happening in Winnipeg. Individuals do NOT have the right to control public discourse, then defame people and accuse them of criminal activity . (Hate speech is a crime in Canada.)
They did pay my court costs, but that is just an agreed upon fee for the Divisional Court and Court of Appeal proceedings. The actual legal fees are much higher than that.
And much higher for them because they were using a Bay Street firm
Congrats Carolyn!
Your experience exposes a much deeper issue within Waterloo Region. The WRDSB, Region of Waterloo, University of Waterloo, the higher ups there basically use the strategy of divide and conquer for the purpose of abrogating to themselves and their friends, public funds.
The province, as overseers need to do something about it. They use situations like yours, for example, a divisive gender issue, to “trick” the public to think they are morally superior, and meanwhile all our tax money is gone and they are constantly running a deficit. Basically, no accountability. By acting this way, they basically keep everyone in check, showing the taxpayers: “see if you challenge us, we will cancel your life”. There is a graveyard of public servants from Waterloo Region, cancelled.
I am sure that if they could have taken their case to court, most of them would have been cleared of any guilt. Many of these people just took their punishment, and an injustice was done in our society. As an example, look at UW over the last 10 years. Their once director of HR, dismissed. Their head of Legal, dismissed. Then UW merged legal with secretariat, and a few years later, dismissed the person who was head of the combined group. Then they fired 50 staff members with legitimate medical or religious exemptions during covid, and a lot of these people were fired after the chief medical officer said the mandate has to go down and also mentioned that he never authorized this type of harsh mandate. UW’s response? Their president said we still have to punish these employees because they were “non-compliant” to begin with. There is an article in the newspaper which showed that UW dismissed 50 employees while Laurier dismissed zero. There was also a professor with tenure dismissed.
All of this to distract the fact that our local Waterloo public bodies have been accumulating enormous debts and this “dismissal sideshow” is pretty much to divide and conquer gullible Waterloo residents, while at the same time, controlling public funds without any accountability or oversight. Just recently, another article, “97 teachers declared ‘surplus’ at Waterloo Region District School Board.” Meanwhile, the Province is saying there is a teacher shortage! The province is shortening teacher education programs from 2 years to 1 because we have a shortage! So why is WRDSB declaring teachers surplus? Well, officially WRDSB rationalizes their decision by “declining enrolment across the province”. So why is the province changing teacher education from 2 to 1 years, because of shortage? I read between the lines to see that our local authorities are not managing our tax money prudently. They have so little accountability that they think its ok to cut 100 teachers, but still sprinkle themselves with our tax money and throw the actual hard working teachers under the boss and balance the books that way, instead of cutting the administration! The administration is out of control. The province needs to take control of all of these city education, region, and even university budgets and I am sure an accounting would be so shocking that it would never be released to us, the taxpayers. These public superintendents, University boards, presidents, region chairs and their friends and lackeys have totally lost sight of gravity. They should be there to serve the taxpayers and not the taxpayers there to serve their jet-setting lifestyles.
Even if you look past the average ones in these taxpayer funded organizations who are rising in pay into the $200’000’s, sometimes with 10% or 30% yearly raises, there is a graveyard of public employees in these organizations whose reputation and livelihood has been permanently ruined. If you did not have enough mental fortitude to keep going and take your case all the way up to the Ontario Court of Appeal, the outcome would have been the same as those less fortunate that were never vindicated. They use our public funds to hire the best “Bay Street” type lawyers to ensure it. Literally, thousands of such victims from Waterloo Region. Former teachers, University employees, Professors, and City/Region employees…
Divide and conquer indeed. The strategy is to isolate people and the sad part is that the rank and file don’t always gather around those who are being bullied. Let’s hope that starts changing soon. There certainly is a power imbalance when the system uses taxpayer’s funds to fight taxpayers. I’m not sure that the average Canadian sees big government as a problem though. They don’t seem to realize the government waste causes the average Canadian to have less to feed and house their families. Money doesn’t grow on trees.