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Katimaviktimhood

It’s rare that someone tries to gain public attention by doing something that is unequivocally wicked. But I think that this must be said of Colleen Cleve, the St. Catharines mom who intends to try to gain class action certification for a lawsuit over the Tories’ closure of the Katimavik program. From HuffPo’s Althia Raj:

[Cleve] believes she may have a breach of contract claim, since the federal government pulled out of a three-year funding agreement with Katimavik one year early. But she knows she’s unlikely to win.

“That’s not my intention; my intention is to basically raise public awareness of what the government has done,” she said. “So many people are not even aware of this program.”

Katimavik’s marketing and communications director Victoria Salvador told HuffPost the court challenge is unlikely to be successful because the contract includes a standard notice clause.

Cleve has given a pretty good outline of the definition of a vexatious lawsuit here, hasn’t she? She knows her lawsuit is an absurdity, since the government’s contract with Katimavik explicitly provided for cancellation on 90 days’ notice; she acknowledges she doesn’t care whether she can win the lawsuit; and her explicit aim is to punish the respondent by consuming time and energy and using the court as a publicity platform. She’s pushing her way onto a finite docket ahead of people with real complaints and grievances—and for what? A great human-rights cause? An injury that cries to heaven for vengeance?

Cleve’s two children were supposed to join Katimavik this July and volunteer in different communities across the country, but their plans for the next six months were thrown into limbo by the government’s decision. Melanie, 20, a finishing student at Niagara College was lucky to get her old summer job back at MarineLand, her mother said. While her 17-year-old son Erik decided to go back to high school for an extra semester after missing application deadlines for college and university.

Yes, Mom’s outraged because her grown children had to find something else to do with a whole summer. I fear that almost every word I can find to characterize her attitude ends in either “-bag” or “-hole”. We shall see if Ms. Cleve’s fellows in the “Nous sommes tous Katimavikeux” movement continue to endorse this behaviour.

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