Anderson vs SRD Appeal 13m34s

De Clarke/ Cortes Currents - : In this third episode of our special feature we're talking to Noba Anderson about the decision recently handed down by the appellate court of BC. The panel of three judges ruled decisively in Anderson's favour in her dispute with the Strathcona regional district. The district had refused to honour their indemnity bylaw and cover her defence costs during a very poorly founded litigation to remove her from office — and subsequently, had censured her for revealing in-camera information to her legal counsel.

[00:01:05] DE: So Noba, we were talking last time about how SRD
may have to blow a lot of taxpayer money on paying the legal costs of this… attempt to get rid of you, back in 2018, 2019. But apart from those costs, there are a few consequences for them — and absolutely none for the anonymous instigators of this entire drama. So I have this sense that while, as you said so eloquently, kindness and truth may have triumphed in the end… justice hasn't exactly triumphed here. There's no requirement for SRD even to apologize. And you can hardly be reinstated — because you've already left office.

[00:01:52] Noba: Yeah, I was censured and removed from my ability to sit on external committees, and well, okay, so that censure is repealed. Well, I'm not going to go sit on a bunch of committees now. [laughs] I'm done with that. So, no, materially, there isn't much difference, now that I'm not in office anymore.

[00:02:10] DE: So this decision, you know, satisfying though it may
be, doesn't deliver much benefit to you personally.
[00:02:18] DE: Do you think that this judgment is beneficial to the
Cortes community?

[00:02:23] Noba: Well, I hope that it will relieve some of the rightly-induced fear of running for elected office. I mean, I would not have run for elected office if this was still hanging! Why, why would I put myself in such a vulnerable position without the backing of the organization that I've been elected to serve? So I think just at that fundamental level of… making sure that potentially elected politicians on Cortes are supported financially, legally. But beyond that, no — there's no sweetness in this justice. It's a… it's a very bitter pill.

[00:03:14] DE: I guess, as we were saying earlier… it might bring
more closure, it might be more beneficial to the community, if the
secrecy of it all could somehow be overcome. If we even knew for
sure how all of this craziness came about.

[00:03:30] Noba: I can't go so far as to speak publicly about who
said what and what really happened and in camera and out of
camera — and not because I'm not legally in the right to at this point, but because that would bring about defamation suits against me probably, from people who are litigiously minded.

[00:03:51] Noba: But what I will say generally is that the spirit at the Regional District Board in those days was absolutely toxic. And they wanted me gone. And that speaks to, you know, a number of things. It speaks to a regional district system that is so far from understanding the constituents in various portions of the district; just by its very nature, the people at that board don't understand the constituents on Cortes.

[00:04:27] Noba: And I don't understand the constituents in Sayward, and don't know the nuances. So it speaks to a fundamental flaw in the governance system that we have. And it also speaks to the ability of a small group of people to — over time, with concerted effort — really poison the pot. And it speaks to a young, female, progressive, non-simpering person in a very patriarchal, Jurassic environment — being a hard row to hoe.

[00:05:05] Noba: And it wasn't fun. I was there for 14 years and a lot of it was really, really Not Fun.