A last-ditch effort by two London women’s advocates to have a former police officer’s lawsuit against them thrown out has been rejected.
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Former London police officer and city hall staffer Marcel Marcellin filed a $4-million lawsuit in 2020 against his ex-wife, the London Abused Women’s Centre and its former executive director, Megan Walker, and Anova and its former director, Kate Wiggins, alleging he lost his job and had his reputation tarnished after being charged with assaulting his ex-wife.
In 2022, a judge dismissed the case against Walker and Wiggins after they filed a motion arguing the legal action was a so-called strategic lawsuit against public participation (SLAPP).
But the Ontario Court of Appeal overturned the ruling in June, saying allowing the case to proceed won’t have a “chilling effect of victims of abuse.”
Wiggins and Walker sought leave from the appeal in the Supreme Court of Canada, the country’s highest court, but their application was dismissed, according to a decision released last week.
The ruling from the top court, which doesn’t include reasons for its decisions, means the lawsuit will proceed to a trial unless a settlement is reached.
Marcellin was going through a contentious custody battle with his ex-wife in 2018 when Walker and Wiggins pressured him to abandon his family law claims or suffer serious consequences, his statement of claim alleges.
The two women met with then-city manager Martin Hayward in 2018 and made false statements about Marcellin’s character and past treatment of his ex-wife, asking Hayward to remove him from the Safe Cities program and to threaten to fire him if he didn’t drop his family law proceedings, his lawsuit alleges.
Marcellin alleges that coordinated campaign led to criminal charges against him and his eventual firing from city hall.
London police charged Marcellin with two counts of assault in 2018, for alleged incidents from 1995 and 1996, but those charges were withdrawn after Marcellin signed a peace bond, an agreement with the court to obey set conditions for a period of time.
Wiggins and Walker, who both provided Marcellin’s ex-wife with counselling and support during her family law proceedings, deny all allegations against them, according to their statements of defence.
Statements of claim and statements filed in response contain allegations not yet proven in court.
Marcellin, who worked as a police officer for 21 years before working at city hall, is also suing London and Woodstock police, alleging they didn’t conduct a proper investigation into his allegations of harassment and extortion against Walker and Wiggins. Both police forces denied the allegations in their statement of defence.