The lawsuit is over. The work continues.

In Nathan’s latest column, he cuts through the noise of a discontinued $1.5-million legal threat to expose how public power and taxpayer dollars are weaponized against regular people.

On May 29, 2026, Sarnia Police Chief Derek Davis permanently discontinued his $1.5-million defamation lawsuit against me, The Sarnia Journal, and Sarnia Media Group. The Notice of Discontinuance was filed "with prejudice," meaning this legal action is entirely over and cannot be refiled. Following this, the Police Services Board stated public funds would not be used for the litigation, and a series of senior leadership suspensions have left our local police service in a period of significant transition.

I was personally named in this lawsuit, and I will not pretend that the experience was abstract. It would be easy to treat this moment as a personal victory. But doing so would miss the story that actually matters to the people of Sarnia.

This lawsuit was never just a private grievance between two people. It was a sitting public official using a $1.5-million legal threat in an attempt to silence an independent, worker-owned newsroom that was asking hard questions about hiring practices, public spending, and private business conflicts intersecting with public office.

Working-class people do not need a legal theory to understand what it means when someone with more money and power tries to make a problem go away. We live in a system where those at the top can easily weaponize high-priced lawyers and institutional weight to shield themselves from scrutiny, while regular people are left to watch public funds dry up for housing, food security, and mental health care. When a public institution attempts to turn accountability reporting into a financial threat, it sends a chilling message to anyone who might think twice before questioning a powerful institution.

The Sarnia Journal did not back down. Local journalism cannot survive if public officials can turn scrutiny into a financial threat. But as the courtroom door closes, the conversation regarding how our community is governed must widen.

The issues that brought us to this point were never abstract theories. They involved real, material concerns: police communication strategies, budget allocations, press access, and leadership culture. Those questions still matter, but they should now be addressed through transparency, policy, and serious public discussion—not personal litigation.

The public also deserves clear answers about Norigen Management Consulting Inc., the private software company operated by the chief, including what role it played locally and what public resources, if any, were involved. Predictive policing tools deserve scrutiny anywhere, but especially when they intersect with private ownership, public data, and local police decision-making.

Next week, I am scheduled to sit down with Sarnia’s new interim police leadership. I intend to approach that meeting not as a personal victory, but as a chance to ask the public-interest questions that remain. The community deserves to hear clear answers to these straightforward questions:

• What is the definitive timeline for the immediate termination of all Norigen and predictive policing software contracts?

• How will police communications change to ensure an end to digital pillorying and unmoderated social media shaming?

• When will the public see full budget transparency that redirects funds away from a “police fortress” and toward off-market housing, non-carceral community care, and actual safety models rooted in care instead of coercion?

• How will leadership establish a serious priority on reducing excessive use of force, with real de-escalation training and alternatives that treat force as a last resort (especially while the service is acquiring a used armoured vehicle)?

• What concrete steps will be taken to show real attention to treating frontline workers with dignity while addressing the internal dynamics of the corrupt power ideology spread across the entire organization?

The Sarnia Journal remains locally owned, worker-led, and committed to asking hard questions in the public interest. The lawsuit is over. Now, the work returns exactly to where it should have been all along: transparency, accountability, and public service.