Humber Local 562 ‘disgusted’ but defiant in face of allegations against former OPSEU executives

James Westman Newsletter Editor

Tanya D’Anger, a partial-load Humber faculty member and steward of Ontario Public Service Employees Union (OPSEU) Local 562, is done holding back.

She said because she’s on contract she is one of the few willing to go on record about the allegations against the union’s former president, Warren (Smokey) Thomas.

“I don’t give a s**t anymore,” she said. “I’ve been teaching for 20 years and seeing how the system doesn’t work to support so many.”

D’Anger said if the allegations were proven true, OPSEU members would have been exploited “shamelessly.”

“It’s something you see in so-called third world countries or Putin’s world where everyone’s getting paid off,” she said.

OPSEU filed a statement of claim on Jan. 16 in the Ontario Superior Court alleging Thomas unlawfully transferred funds and assets totaling about $1.75 million. None of the allegations have been tested in court.

J.P. Hornick, the current OPSEU president, said in a statement to members the same day that the union began a forensic audit performed by a third party last April after a new board was elected and Thomas retired.

Thomas’ lawyers responded in a statement the next day, saying the statement of claim was “riddled with errors, falsehoods, and untrue allegations.”

It said the claims against the former president are “bogus.”

D’Anger said she did not believe Thomas’ defence.

“Of course, the lawyer’s going to say that knee-jerk reaction, right? Deny, deny, deny,” she said.

Thomas’s statement described him as a leader with a reputation for honesty.

As OPSEU president, he “always put the interests of his members and his union first. That will never change,” the statement said.

Miloš Vasić, president of Local 562, said he was shocked by the allegations.

“During Smokey’s tenure, there always were tensions,” Vasić said. “But regardless of those tensions, the allegations were really ugly.”

Jeffrey Kroeker, Thomas’ co-counsel, said most lawyers would see the statement of claim more as a political statement than a claim based on allegations.