Green Party to call off legal action against Paul

Green Party executives have opted to drop a legal challenge against their leader that brought tensions between senior officials and Annamie Paul to a boil last summer.

Two senior party members who were not authorized to speak publicly on the matter say members of the federal council and the Green Party of Canada Fund met over the past week to call off their court action.

Ms. Paul launched an arbitration last summer related to her employment contract and moves by party brass to oust her through a non-confidence vote and a membership suspension – both were halted by the independent arbitrator.

In response, several senior officials filed a legal challenge on behalf of the party against Ms. Paul that questioned the arbitrator’s decision.

The disputes have added to the party’s financial woes, which Green executives cited after they laid off more than half their staff this week and continued to hold out on the compensation Ms. Paul is seeking for her legal fees.

Ms. Paul still occupies the leader’s chair – a spot that gives her some leverage in continuing legal wrangling – after announc

ing last month she would step down after an election that returned two Greens to the Commons but saw the party’s share of the popular vote tumble to 2 per cent following months of internal strife.

The party ran only 252 candidates in the country’s 338 seats.

The Green Party and Ms. Paul’s office did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

In an e-mail blast to membership obtained by The Canadian Press, Green Party president Lorraine Rekmans said its finances

need to find a “sustainable footing.” That need prompted the layoff of 11 core staffers this week, she wrote Tuesday.

“The decision to lay off so many of our long-serving staff has been very difficult,” Ms. Rekmans said in the statement.

The Greens face a “financial crisis,” said John Willson and Corrina Serda, co-presidents of the party’s fund – treasurer for the federal council, which is the Greens’ main governing body.