Federal Court bans man for frivolous lawsuits

A man with a history of launching numerous frivolous lawsuits in Yukon and Nunavut has been barred from the Federal Court.

Francis Mazhero is not allowed to file any more Federal Court applications without that court's permission, according to a ruling by Justice Danile Tremblay-Lamer.

In a written decision dated March 30, Tremblay-Lamer said Mazhero "has a history of initiating frivolous proceedings and interlocutory applications" for over a decade.

Mazhero has launched 12 proceedings in the Federal Court and the Federal Court of Appeal over the past 10 years, Tremblay-Lamer noted.

"Of those 12 proceedings, eight have been dismissed, one file has been ordered closed, and the remaining three have yet to be ultimately decided," Tremblay-Lamer wrote in her ruling.

Mazhero represented himself in the numerous court proceedings he has launched, including the latest one in Federal Court.

Yukon judge considered ban

The Yukon Supreme Court considered banning Mazhero from that territory's court system in 2001, citing the numerous proceedings he had filed.

Mazhero first sued Yukon's Education Department after he was let go as a consultant. Originally from Zimbabwe, Mazhero accused the department of racial discrimination.

Mazhero went on to file at least six more lawsuits that targeted the Yukon ombudsman, the Yukon Human Rights Commission and others.

"Many of the steps he has taken have been labelled in the past as unmeritorious, without legal foundation, irrelevant and repetitive," the Yukon Court of Appeal stated in a 2002 ruling that dismissed many of his appeals.

Mazhero then moved to Nunavut, where he took the Federation of Nunavut Teachers to court over "numerous grievances" related to his job as a teacher in Chesterfield Inlet.

In a 2003 Nunavut Court of Justice ruling, the judge who oversaw Mazhero's case said he "files significantly more material than any other individual."

Sued judge, prosecutors for millions

Then in August 2009, Nunavut court Justice Neil Sharkey declared Mazhero to be a "vexatious litigant" in that territory's court system.

Mazhero then tried to get Sharkey prosecuted on a Criminal Code charge of defamatory libel.

He later sued Sharkey and Crown prosecutors Andrew Fox and Jacques Benoit Roberge, claiming that the prosecutors were negligent because they would not prosecute Sharkey.

Mazhero sought $2.5 million in damages from Fox and Roberge and $3 million from Sharkey, according to Tremblay-Lamer's decision.

"I am satisfied that the respondent has persistently instituted vexatious proceedings and has conducted the underlying proceeding in a vexatious manner," Tremblay-Lamer wrote, dismissing Mazhero's lawsuit against the judge and the prosecutors.