Yew Wood Lawsuit Settled !

The Yew Wood lawsuit has been settled out of court. The details are unavailable as the settlement was covered by a gag order.The amount of the payment made by the District of Tofino is not known.
  There have been no new developments in the Hammock Holdings vs. District of Tofino lawsuit.
  My attempts to uncover what has been going on "in-camera" led to this scathing letter from Michelle Martineau. I would suggest that "searching for information" is exactly what the "Freedom of Information" act is for......I would also suggest that the taxpayers money could be spent more wisely than consulting the District's lawyers and suing me......Many on this Council ran on a platform of transparency but I received more co-operation with requests for information from John Fraser and Bob Long even if it was to their disadvantage.One can only speculate what is being hidden from the public .........It is hard to be more precise in my request for information as all these meetings are held in secret , behind closed doors. It should also be noted that neither the District of Tofino nor any of its employees have ever contacted me with regards to blog posts.If any posts are objectionable they will be reviewed and deleted if required.

----- Original Message -----

From: Michelle Martineau

To: fipa@vcn.bc.ca

Cc: Perry Schmunk ; Braden Smith

Sent: Monday, April 30, 2012 11:18 AM

Subject: FW: FOI denied

Good Morning Mr. Evans,

Mr. Tieleman's request was not denied, he had been requested to provide further clarification as to what exactly he was searching for.  The intent of my letter (see attached) was to determine what exactly it was that Mr. Tieleman was searching for and if he was not prepared to reveal that then I was going to submit a section 43 request to the OIPC to disregard the request as vexatious.

As a little background information on Mr. Tieleman, he submits 8-12 FOI requests on an annual basis, which makes up between 90-95% of the requests submitted, his intent is to interfere with the District's operations.  Mr. Tieleman has a blog which is mostly used to bash or embarrass the District, and his request is meant to look for anything scandalous which he can post to his blog.  He is searching for information which is not what the purpose of the Act is for.   The District had been in consultation with our solicitors regarding some of the defamatory comments made by Mr. Tieleman regarding District staff.  There is a member of staff who is in the process of filing suit against Mr. Tieleman regarding his posts.

If you have any further questions, please do not hesitate to contact me at 250.725.3775 ext 57.

Thank you.

Michelle Martineau

Deputy Clerk

District of Tofino

PO Box 9

121 3rd Street

Tofino BC  V0R 2Z0

Tel: (250) 725-3229

Fax: (250) 725-3775