Province seeks dismissal of lawsuit by doctor accused in deadly Campbellton COVID outbreak

The New Brunswick Attorney General's office is seeking the dismissal of a lawsuit filed against the province by a former Campbellton doctor accused in 2020 of breaking COVID-19 rules by failing to isolate and of being the source of a deadly outbreak.

Dr. Jean-Robert Ngola, 52, filed the lawsuit against the province, as well as the RCMP and Facebook, in January, alleging, among other things, "institutional anti-Black systemic racism," abuse of power, negligence, defamation, malicious prosecution and a breach of his charter rights.

In a notice of motion filed with the Moncton Court of Queen's Bench, lawyers from the Office of the Attorney General request the action  against the province "be struck out in its entirety, or in part, for failing to disclose a reasonable cause of action."

They describe the plaintiff's amended 61-page statement of claim as "repetitive, unreasonably prolix, confusing and unnecessarily complicated."

It is replete "with pleadings of evidence, speculation and opinion as well as legal argument that are contrary to the rules of pleadings and ought to be struck," they allege in the June 28 court document.

In the alternative, the lawyers request a determination by the court of "certain questions of law raised in the amended claim that would dispose of the action, shorten the trial or result in a substantial saving of costs."

Otherwise, the lawyers contend, the matter should be struck based on several other grounds, including that the pleadings may "prejudice, embarrass or delay the fair trial of the action," are "scandalous, frivolous or vexatious and are an abuse of the process," and fail to contain a concise statement of the material facts upon which the plaintiff relies.

Asked for comment, Ngola's Toronto-based lawyer Joel Etienne said only: "Is the province defending on the facts? Has the premier provided sworn evidence yet?"

Premier Blaine Higgs is not named as a defendant, but Ngola's lawyers have repeatedly called on the premier to apologize for his role in the matter, which saw the doctor, who is from Congo, face racist threats, be suspended, investigated criminally by the RCMP and charged with breaching the province's Emergency Measures Act — a charge that was later dropped.

During a news conference on May 27, 2020, Higgs blamed what was then a cluster of COVID-19 cases in the Campbellton region and a resurgence of the coronavirus in the province on an "irresponsible individual" who returned to work at the hospital and treated patients for two weeks.

Higgs never referred to Ngola by name but said a medical professional in their 50s had travelled to Quebec for personal reasons, "was not forthcoming about their reasons for travel upon returning to New Brunswick and they did not self-isolate as a result."

A total of 41 people became infected, and two of them, who were in their 80s, died, including the province's first COVID-19 fatality.

Ngola was labelled by some as "patient zero" after he tested positive for COVID-19, following a trip to Quebec in early May 2020. He drove across the border to Montreal to pick up his four-year-old daughter, because her mother had to travel to Africa for a funeral, he said. He also made a stop in Trois-Rivières, he later confirmed.

Department of Justice and Public Safety spokesperson Geoffrey Downey declined to respond to Etienne's comments.