Former N.B. legislature Speaker drops lawsuit against province, ex-premier
CBC
A former Speaker of the New Brunswick legislature quietly ended his lawsuit against the provincial government and former premier Brian Gallant last year.
Court documents show that Chris Collins, a former Moncton Centre MLA expelled from the Liberal caucus in 2018 over harassment allegations, halted the court action last May.
The filing by his lawyer, Andrew Moss, says Collins "wholly discontinues" the lawsuit and agrees not to pursue the allegations in the future.
In a statement to CBC News, Gallant said "there was no financial settlement in this matter."
Collins said in an email that he dropped the suit because of "the significant financial and mental stress fighting the government had taken" since 2018.
"It is still my position that the government acted inappropriately, but continued litigation against an opponent with unlimited financial resources was not in the best interest of my family," he wrote.
"So I reluctantly decided to put this behind me and focus on helping create better opportunities for New Brunswickers."
In April 2018, Gallant announced the Liberal caucus was removing Collins because of the harassment complaint against him as Speaker from an unidentified employee of the legislature.
The all-party legislative administration committee commissioned an investigation and later said the complaint was "founded in part," though the report was never released.
Collins later told reporters he was making a "complete and unreserved apology for anything I said that offended the complainant or anyone else," saying he considered his comments "humorous and inoffensive" but to others they were "perceived as inappropriate."
He also said the "overwhelming majority" of the allegations against him had been deemed unfounded. In court filings he said 77 out of 80 were unfounded.
Collins remained in the position of Speaker until the provincial election later that year.
He announced he would not run as a Liberal under Gallant and instead became an independent candidate, placing a distant second to Liberal winner Rob McKee.
His lawsuit against Gallant, the provincial government and the legislature accused them of breach of employment contract, breach of privacy and abuse of authority.
While his party has made a cause célèbre out of its battle with the Speaker, Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre has periodically waxed poetic about the House of Commons — suggesting that its green upholstery is meant to symbolize the fields of the English countryside where commoners met centuries ago before the signing of the Magna Carta.