Ward takes Labelle to court

Pierrefonds/Roxboro municipal councillor Bert Ward is asking for $100,000 in damages from election-campaign rival Michael Labelle for allegedly defamatory content the latter has been running on his blog since last August.

"I can't comment on it much, it's a lawsuit," Ward, a veteran councillor for the west district since the days Pierrefonds was a demerged municipality and a member of Union Montreal since its merger, told The Chronicle.

Labelle, a councillor at Pierrefonds until 2001, ran for borough council that year and in 2005 with Pierre Bourque's Vision Montreal, but lost. This year, he joined with Projet Montreal after first creating an independent citizens' coalition and ran for borough mayor against incumbent Monique Worth, but lost again.

He first received a cease-and-desist letter from Fasken Martineau, a law firm then representing Monique Worth and Bert Ward, asking him to take down the blog or "modify its contents completely.

At the time, however, he told The Chronicle he would not back down.

On his blog posts, Labelle chastises the current administration for what he deems misspending of public funds, citing personal use of a cell phone by Ward charged to the borough as one example.

The original letter had also taken issue with recurring use of "disgraceful pictures" on the blog by Labelle, without delving into specifics.

Labelle did not want to comment for the record before seeking legal counsel.

More as it breaks.