OTTAWA — Manitoba judge and former Conservative cabinet minister Vic Toews’ wages were to be seized earlier this year in order to fulfil his lease with an Ottawa-area landlord.
Toews lost an appeal at Quebec’s rental tribunal earlier this month to have the payment order against him reversed.
Tribunal documents say that after Toews resigned his cabinet post in July 2013, he did not pay the remaining months of his lease at a Gatineau, Que., property totalling $3,900.
Landlord Raymond Desmarais pursued the matter with the tribunal, and won in November 2013.
But Toews says he did not take note of the proceedings or the ruling until the beginning of this year when he realized his salary was to be garnisheed, saying he could not read the French-language documents that were sent to him last December.
Administrative Judge Pierre Gagnon said that as a judge and a former justice minister Toews should have paid attention to a document entitled “DECISION.”
