Green Party grassroots fights Paul; tries overturn ruling over nixed non-confidence vote

The Green Party of Canada will go to court in an attempt to overturn a decision by an independent arbitrator to shut down a non-confidence vote on Annamie Paul’s future as leader.

So what's the story so far? In documents submitted Wednesday to the Ontario Superior Court , leader Annamie Paul submitted a Notice of Request to Arbitrate on July 7, which included “an order to quash a non-confidence vote on her leadership,” which was supposed to take place on July 20.

Consequently, the arbitrator, Earl Cherniak, ordered on July 15 that a non-confidence motion would not proceed before the party’s general meeting in August

This weekend, Paul confirmed the vote was cancelled but never indicated it was due to legal wrangling.

However, now the party is arguing the arbitrator erred in judgment for a host of reasons.

There's a few reasons. Firstly, they argue that while Paul’s employment agreement offers arbitration relief for disputes and controversies, that agreement is made with the Green Party of Canada Fund – the party’s legal and financial body – not the Green Party itself, so applying an arbitration order on the party is wrong.

“The arbitrator made an error in jurisdiction and therefore in law. The [order] purports to restrain the Green Party which is not a signatory to the Employment Agreement,” the documents read.

Secondly, the party argues that the arbitrator sought to “limit the activities, decisions and communications of members and the membership of the Green Party.”

The grassroots argues that it should be allowed to render a ultimate judgement on Paul's leadership, whereby a non-confidence vote would have required support from three-quarters of the 13-member governing body in order to proceed to a party-wide vote.