Judge orders do-over vote at Windsor-Essex Humane Society after members were blocked

A judge has ruled against the Windsor-Essex County Humane Society in a case on who says how the organization runs. CTV Windsor's Travis Fortnum digs deeper.

A judge has ordered the Windsor/Essex County Humane Society to hold a new annual general members’ meeting, ruling that hundreds of eligible members were wrongly excluded from a key governance vote.

The decision from the Ontario Superior Court of Justice centres on a proposed overhaul of how the Windsor/Essex County Humane Society is governed.

In 2024, the society’s board moved to adopt a closed membership model, which would restrict voting rights to board members only.

Before members could vote on that change, the board declined to recognize more than 200 newly signed-up members - many of them volunteers, donors or employees.

The court found the board acted “arbitrarily and in bad faith,” ruling those members were entitled to vote.

Because they were blocked, the bylaw approving the change was declared void.

Lawyer Andrew Colautti, who represented the members behind the legal challenge, said the case was never about whether a closed model was the right direction, but about who had a say.

“The only point was - should we be allowing the 224 members, who are for the most part volunteers, donors and employees, to vote in deciding the future of the Humane Society?” he told CTV News.

Under the ruling, the society must hold a new AGM within 60 days, allowing all eligible members to attend and vote.

Any business conducted at meetings held after the original vote has been nullified.

In a statement, Humane Society executive director Lynette Bain said the organization respects the court’s decision and is reviewing it with legal counsel.

“Our priority remains the welfare of the animals in our care and the stability of the services our community relies on,” she wrote.

“We are committed to transparency and will provide further updates once we have had an opportunity to assess next steps, including the court‑ordered Annual General Members’ meeting.”

The judge noted the ruling does not affect day-to-day operations or automatically change leadership, but instead resets the governance process so members can properly weigh in.