Sexual harassment case against David Peterson dismissed, accuser apologies
Toronto, Oct 31 (IBNS): Former premier David Peterson has received an apology from Ximena Morris, who accused the former of sexually harassing her after the Ontario Superior Court dismissed the lawsuit, media reports said.
Morris was an employee in Pan Am Games.
Morris has issued a statement to both Peterson and his wife Shelley.
The lawsuit was launched by Morris in 2015.
Explaining the reasons for launching the lawsuit, Morris' lawyer Lisa Talbot of Torys LLB, said: "We maintained from the outset that this action was brought solely to embarrass Ms. Peterson, as a well-known public figure, for the purpose of extracting funds from him and the co-defendants.”
"And attempting to bring notoriety to Ms. Morris," Talbot said.
"On August 13, 2015, Ms. Morris’ counsel called counsel for TO2015 threatening to issue a statement of claim and to immediately disclose the allegations to the press if the defendants did not pay Ms. Morris $500,000 within half an hour," Morris' lawyer told the Star.
"When the defendants did not accept Ms. Morris’ demand, Ms. Morris and her counsel had the statement of claim issued immediately and went to the press."
Talbot even said the whole incident was unfortunate and should not have happened.
The allegations against Peterson was that he had embraced Morris inappropriately and also passed some humiliating remarks in public.
However, Peterson always maintain that he had done nothing wrong and countered the lawsuit with a defamation case.
Peterson was the premier between 1985 and 1990.
He was a key player in Pan Am Games.
(Reporting by Suman Das)
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