The Ontario Court of Appeal has granted Scarborough councillor Jim Karygiannis a stay of an earlier court decision ordering him to vacate his council seat.
In a decision handed down Wednesday, the court ruled that Karygiannis can keep his seat – at least until the Supreme Court of Canada decides whether it will hear his case.
On June 24, another Ontario Court of Appeal panel ruled that Karygiannis forfeit his seat immediately.
The court found the Ward 22 councillor filed improper financial statements for the 2018 election.
According to its decision, Karygiannis spent some five times more on “parties and other expressions of appreciation” than allowed during the 2018 campaign. The court found that Karygiannis spent $32,083.50, some $26,000 above the limit. Karygiannis has described the spending violation as a clerical error.
The most recent decision drags out a case that has been in the courts since last November.
That’s when Karygiannis was initially ordered to vacate his seat. He won an appeal of that decision, which was then appealed by the Toronto resident who filed the initial complaint to the Ontario Court of Appeal.
It’s unclear if the Supreme Court of Canada will even hear Karygiannis’s case.
Karygiannis, who ran for council in 2014 after serving as Liberal MP between 1988 and 2014, has had a political career pockmarked by controversy.
Editor’s note: This story has been updated from an earlier version
