B.C. judge orders ‘vexatious’ litigant to pay First Nation $25,000 in costs
KAMLOOPS, B.C. – A B.C. Supreme Court judge has ordered a member of a Kamloops-area First Nation to pay $25,000 in security costs and to stay away from more than a dozen people.
Justice Hope Hyslop said in a pair of scathing written decisions released Tuesday that Peter August-Sjodin has shown through a number of court filings that he intends to intimidate and frustrate the Little Shuswap Lake Indian Band.
The lawsuits are “nonsense and incomprehensible,” she said.
“Mr. August-Sjodin’s conduct in this litigation is scandalous and outrageous.”
The rulings said that in January 2015, August-Sjodin was banned from several of the First Nation’s properties, including its administration offices, a gas station and a daycare.
However, he continued to enter the facilities and harass, bully and intimidate people. Members of the First Nation said they felt threatened.
The rulings said he also harassed people who used the First Nation’s hotel, golf course, gas bar and other businesses.
Hyslop said the case was the latest in several that August-Sjodin has launched against the band.
None of his court filings contained a reasonable defence and many of them suggest he does not believe he is bound by Canada’s laws, Hyslop ruled.
The decisions said some of the court documents were filed under alternative names and that many pages had stamps, fingerprints and various numbers and letters on them, though the significance of the marks was unknown.
Hyslop said the First Nation needs to protect members from August-Sjodin’s behaviour.
She ordered him to stay away from six of the First Nation’s buildings, to not contact its administration office or 14 other people named in the decision.
The judge said it’s unlikely that August-Sjodin will pay the ordered costs or stop pursuing the various court actions he has launched.
“He has demonstrated again that he does not intend on co-operating with the legal system, nor obey the rules of civil court,” Hyslop wrote.
“He has, throughout all of the legal proceedings in this action, demonstrated that he intends to intimidate and frustrate the band and its members at great cost.”
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