{"id":20376,"date":"2018-04-11T23:54:48","date_gmt":"2018-04-12T03:54:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/?p=20376"},"modified":"2018-04-12T11:03:41","modified_gmt":"2018-04-12T15:03:41","slug":"assault-charges-against-former-councillor-before-courts-again-next-month","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/assault-charges-against-former-councillor-before-courts-again-next-month\/","title":{"rendered":"Assault charges against former councillor before courts again next month"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Brock Weir<\/strong><\/p>\n

Aggravated assault charges laid against Magna\u2019s Steve Hinder will be back before the courts on May 15.
\nHinder faced charges earlier this week and the first appearance was held in Newmarket on Tuesday morning. The case was held over until May for discovery.
\nThe charges, which have not been proven in court, were brought about by 2014 Council candidate Anthony Pullano, who has been engaged in a long-running civil dispute with Hinder, in which Pullano alleges Hinder struck him in the chest at a political meeting just prior to the 2014 Provincial election. Hinder strongly denies the allegations.
\nThe initial claims have been working their way through the civil courts since 2015, but jumped to the criminal courts after Pullano filed a pre-enquete motion, which brings the matter before a Justice of the Peace to determine whether charges should be laid against an individual following a private complaint.
\nThe civil matter has been ongoing since February 2015 with a $5 million lawsuit launched by Pullano.
\nIn that claim, Pullano alleges that on the evening of March 20, 2014, he was confronted by Hinder at The Mansion events centre during the acclamation of Jane Twinney as Newmarket-Aurora\u2019s Ontario PC candidate in that year\u2019s election.
\nHe claims Hinder approached him at the event, knowing he attended the nomination meeting of Liberal candidate Chris Ballard the previous evening, asking, \u201cWho are you supporting tonight?\u201d
\n\u201cUsing his right clenched fist, Hinder then struck the Plaintiff on the right side of his chest where his Implantable Cardioverter Defibrillator (ICD) was located,\u201d reads the claim. \u201cAt all relevant times, Hinder knew the Plaintiff had an ICD. At no relevant time did the Plaintiff consent to the assault. At all relevant times, Hinder inflicted the Assault in a direct and intentional manner.\u201d
\nAs a result of the alleged assault, Pullano claims he suffered injuries and damages, going the next day to Southlake Regional Health Centre for an \u201cemergency appointment to deal with the pain and discomfort in the area of his ICD as a result of the Assault.\u201d
\nAn infection resulted, he goes on to claim, leading to a \u201cdeterioration\u201d in health including \u201closs of heart function, loss of sexual function, a loss of right hand function, and chronic pain and inflammation in his right hand and\/or right arm.\u201d
\nPullano goes on to claim that the resulting issues prevented him from fully participating in the 2014 municipal election, in which he stood as a Council candidate, as well as loss of income.
\nHe\u2019s claiming $5 million in general damages and non-pecuniary loss, citing loss of enjoyment of life, loss of opportunity, loss of future earnings, intentional infliction of mental distress, aggravated damages and\/or punitive damages.
\nThe claims, which Hinder strenuously denies, have not been proven.
\nIn his defence, lawyers for Hinder say he was indeed in attendance at Twinney\u2019s nomination meeting. He claims he approached Pullano, shook his hand, and asked him who he was supporting that evening.
\n\u201cThe plaintiff shook Hinder\u2019s hand in return,\u201d the files claim. \u201cMr. Hinder then ceased interacting with the plaintiff and became engaged in conversation with the three other individuals standing beside the plaintiff. The defendants plead that the only physical contact between Mr. Hinder and the plaintiff at the event was the handshake. The defendants strenuously deny that Hinder at any time struck the plaintiff, in the chest or otherwise, or that Mr. Hinder threw a clenched fist towards the plaintiff as alleged.\u201d
\nIt goes on to deny \u201cany negligence, assault, battery, or intentional infliction of mental distress by Mr. Hinder. The defendants specifically deny that the plaintiff suffered any injuries, damages or losses as alleged\u2026or at all and put the plaintiff to the strict proof thereof.\u201d
\nThe defence claims any \u201cinjuries, damages or losses alleged, which are not admitted but expressly denied\u201d were not caused by any fault or neglect of their clients.
\nAs such, Hinder has launched a $1 million case against Pullano \u2013 $500,000 for general damages for libel, and a further $500,000 for punitive and aggravated damages \u2013 and a permanent injunction restraining Pullano for \u201cdirectly or indirectly\u201d spreading what they allege are false statements against Mr. Hinder.
\nThe counterclaim cites upwards of 40 Tweets and other social media posts made by Pullano describing Hinder as a \u201cracist, a \u201cbully\u201d, a \u201cthug\u201d, a \u201ccheater\u201d , claiming that he had engaged in \u201csmear campaigns\u201d against candidates, all of which is denied in the counterclaim.
\n\u201cMr. Hinder pleads that the statements made by Pullano were made with malice, with the intention of harming Mr. Hinder, his reputation and his professional associations,\u201d reads the claim. \u201cPullano has acted irresponsibly and negligently.\u201d
\nIt is claimed Pullano \u201cinstigated a campaign\u201d to malign Hinder\u2019s reputation and to have him removed from a number of community boards on which he sits or with which he is affiliated.
\n\u201cPullano has attempted to intimidate the Southlake Foundation into distancing itself from any association with Hinder as a past board member, by stating that the Southlake Foundation is complicit in criminal activities so long as they associate with him,\u201d reads the claim. \u201cIn directing the defamatory statements to multiple news organizations, to Mr. Hinder\u2019s employer at Magna International, to the Southlake Foundation Board and CEO, to the Prime Minister, and to the Mayor of Aurora, Members of Council of Aurora, the Aurora Town Chief Administrative Officer and the Aurora Town Clerk, Pullano has conducted himself in a manner intended to spread further afield the damage to Mr. Hinder\u2019s reputation. Pullano has acted in a high-handed and oppressive manner and was motivated to so act by actual malice.\u201d
\nThe allegations made in Hinder\u2019s counterclaim have not been proven in court.<\/p>\n\"Facebook\"<\/a>\"twitter\"<\/a>\"mail\"<\/a>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

$1 million defamation suit launched by Hinder in ongoing case<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[4,5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-20376","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general_news","category-news"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3D2k4-5iE","publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-04-12 15:26:40","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20376","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=20376"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20376\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20376"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20376"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20376"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}