By Michael Boriero
The Township of Potton remains embroiled in an expensive, and longstanding legal dispute dating back to 2018 between the municipality and its former general manager, Thierry Roger, and it is all coming to a head just a few weeks before the municipal elections.
On Saturday, Roger, who is running for a council seat this year, sent out an email to Mayor Michael Laplume, and three councillors, Bruno Côté, Francis Marcoux, and André Ducharme, demanding an out-of-court settlement regarding a defamation countersuit filed in 2020.
“It is really targeting three councillors and the mayor, he avoids two other councillors, he really wants these four individuals to weigh in, to get him a deal, and to get him out of a lawsuit that he has with the town,” Côté said in an interview with The Record.
But it was also an ultimatum from Roger, as the disgruntled, ex-general manager stated that if they are re-elected, he plans to meet them in court, and if they aren’t re-elected, he intends to sue them individually for five times the amount he claimed in his countersuit.
“I’m in a position where I’m not going to commit to giving him a deal by pressure, but at the same time, do I want a $200,000 lawsuit after the election? And so, coming from an ex-general manager, it’s big, and it’s coming from somebody running for office on top of it,” said Côté.
After Roger was let go by the town in 2018, which came with a significant monetary package, he also agreed, as per the termination agreement, that he, along with the council, would not engage in any activities that could tarnish each party’s image.
However, in 2020, Roger fired off over 100 emails with complaints about council members, divulging confidential information, which he obtained while he was working for the municipality. This forced the municipality to file a lawsuit seeking reparations.
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