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the ongoing disfunction at thehated Ontario Rental Housing Tribunal has hit another low point. Chisanga Puta-Chekwe, the chief of the Tory-made body, is embroiled in a legal tangle of his own with an agent who represents tenants and landlords before the quasi-judicial body. Douglas Allen, a Mississauga-based paralegal, is suing the chair in small claims court for thousands of dollars in damages, alleging that Puta-Chekwe made and disseminated libellous comments in a letter last year questioning Allen’s conduct at hearings.
Allen’s counsel, Gerald Grupp, declined to comment before the case goes to trial. And Carol Kiley, the tribunal’s manager of program development, also didn’t want to comment.
But the tribunal’s statement of defence denies that the chair defamed Allen and argues, among other things, that the contentious letter was privileged, factual and an expression of opinion.
