The third-largest federal union is facing a multi-million dollar lawsuit filed in the wake of the mayhem created by an attempted ouster of its president.

Emmanuelle Tremblay, the former president of the Canadian Association of Professional Employees (CAPE), filed court documents seeking more than $2.1 million in damages from the union and the vice-president she says led a petition campaign to impeach her with false and unsubstantiated allegations.

CAPE represents 13,000 economists, policy analysts, Library of Parliament research assistants, translators, interpreters and social scientists. Its’ members are one of the largest talent pools for promotion into federal executive jobs.

Tremblay’s lawyer recently filed suit in Ontario Superior Court against the union she once led, as well as Nick Giannakoulis, the CAPE vice-president she once considered an ally and her right-hand. None of the allegations have been tested in court.

Tremblay seeks damages for claims ranging from constructive dismissal and harassment to defamation and “intentional infliction” of mental suffering. The suit seeks $400,000 in damages from Giannakoulis and $1.7 million from Giannakoulis and CAPE. It is also seeking additional awards for lost salary, breach of “good faith and fair dealing” in terminating Tremblay’s contract, as well as legal fees.

“The conduct of CAPE and Mr. Giannakoulis was malicious, oppressive, heavy-handed and a marked departure from the ordinary standards of decent behaviour. This conduct deserves full condemnation and punishment,” the claim states.

Tremblay is represented by Janice Payne, an Ottawa-based labour and employment lawyer.

Greg Phillips, CAPE’s current president, said in an email that the union and Giannakoulis are consulting lawyers and have no comment on the matter. Giannakoulis did not reply when contacted directly.

“CAPE will be filing a statement of defence on this matter and intends to defend and protect the association and its officers vigorously. Since this is now a legal matter, we feel that any further comment would be inappropriate at this time,” wrote Phillips.

CAPE sent a similarly worded message Wednesday “in the spirit of transparency” to members, advising them about the lawsuit after the union was contacted for comment by iPolitics.

Tremblay’s lawsuit is the latest twist in an internal power struggle that rocked the union for nearly two years, leaving its leadership in turmoil and its members potentially on the hook for legal and other costs.

The tale, as recapped in Tremblay’s 45-page statement of claim, began shortly after Tremblay took office in 2015 with the stated intention of leading CAPE in a new political and progressive direction.

Soon after, a petition to remove Tremblay as president was started, igniting a series of events that plunged the union into bitter infighting, with staff and directors issuing dozens of complaints and harassment allegations.

The chaos escalated during an investigation into the petition with an anonymous social media campaign that attacked Tremblay and her alleged allies and leaked internal documents, records and emails on Twitter.

Tremblay’s statement of claim says the union and Giannakoulis showed “callous disregard” for Tremblay’s personal and professional well-being. It described Giannakoulis’ behavior as “outrageous;” intended to cause mental anguish and “reckless disregard” for her mental well-being.

It alleges he harassed, slandered and defamed Tremblay and further alleges that his conduct led to her suspension without pay and undercut her role as president to the point where she was unable seek another term in office.

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“Mr. Giannakoulis’ statements had a significant impact on Ms. Tremblay’s formerly positive public reputation and were designed to expose Ms. Trembly to hatred, contempt and ridicule.”

In the fallout of the petition, Tremblay was suspended and later survived a vote to remove her as president. She returned to work but went on medical leave for the final months of her term and, according to the claim, decided not to seek re-election because of the impact of relentless attacks on her health and reputation.

[READ MORE: Embattled union president will not run again]

According to the claim, CAPE’s conduct was “flagrant and calculated to produce” harm. The union failed to protect Tremblay, the claim states, from harassment and defamation. It also says that the union suspended her without pay for a transgression that Giannakoulis also committed but he faced no sanctions.

The claim alleges CAPE is “vicariously liable” for Giannakoulis’ conduct. It did nothing to protect her or take action against Giannakoulis for making false statements about her to members and directors. The union wouldn’t investigate all of Tremblay’s complaints and then failed to act upon the findings of investigations that were done, it says.

Tremblay was elected on a progressive platform to confront cuts made by the Harper Conservative government. This was big shift for CAPE, which had in the past steered clear of militancy, activism and social justice issues.

Tremblay and Giannakoulis even ran on the same slate with eight other candidates, all bound by a common platform that aimed to shake up the union and make it more progressive. Those 10 members on the slate controlled the 18-member board of directors.

Today, none of the 10 – other than Giannakoulis, who later broke ranks with the slate – remain on the National Executive Committee (NEC).

The petition to remove Tremblay as president surfaced in early 2016. It alleged misconduct; overstepping her authority as president and breaching union bylaws and its constitution in collective bargaining, a series of financial and staffing matters and with alleged election tampering.

The petition written by Michael Donohue, a member of the union’s bargaining team, was presented at a special membership meeting where Giannakoulis was spokesman. Giannakoulis did not sign the petition.

In the wake of the controversy sparked by the petition, CAPE hired labour experts Gosselin Nadeau to investigate. The firm delivered two reports that are central to the allegations of Tremblay’s lawsuit.

The first report, prepared by one of the firm’s partners Georges Nadeau, detailed that only one of the petition allegations against Tremblay — dealing with her access to voting results — was “founded.”

He found that Tremblay and Giannakoulis wrongly accessed real-time voting results during an election for a new board member for whom Giannakoulis was campaigning. There was, the report said, no evidence the final election results were affected by the breach.

With that finding, the union’s NEC suspended Tremblay for five weeks without pay. Giannakoulis wasn’t disciplined. Instead, the union’s investigation committee decided Nadeau’s findings about Giannakoulis be part of a further investigation into other outstanding complaints.

Donohue, who wrote the petition, issued an apology after seeing the report. He said he was given false and misleading information by Giannakoulis, whom he relied on when writing the petition. He urged a minimal sanction against Tremblay and that Giannakoulis be suspended from the union for misleading members.

Despite Donohue’s pleas, the board suspended Tremblay. The claim alleges Tremblay was not allowed to attend the disciplinary hearing, but Giannakoulis was and he voted to suspend her “despite his obvious conflict of interest.”

The petition triggered an impeachment vote. Although Tremblay survived the vote, the statement of claim alleges it “greatly damaged Ms Tremblay’s reputation among the membership and general public.”

Tremblay had pressed for Nadeau’s report to be readily available to members in the run-up to the vote, but they had to request a copy. Donohue’s apology was not broadly shared wth members.

During Nadeau’s probe, the union was further unsettled by a nasty social media campaign attacking Tremblay and dumping reams of internal documents, records and emails anonymously on Twitter.

Documents like Tremblay’s employment contract and correspondence with lawyers were posted online – information the claim alleges only Giannakoulis could have provided.

The union hired forensic IT investigators to find who was responsible for the leaks.

Price Waterhouse Coopers investigated and suspected Giannakoulis was the leak and sought to examine his laptop. According to Tremblay’s statement of claim, he refused and later turned it in after clearing its hard drive. The investigation was dropped.

Meanwhile, another investigation was called into Tremblay’s complaints against Giannakoulis – many flowing from the allegations in the Donohue petition.

That report, by investigator Michel Gosselin, found Giannakoulis published and circulated false reports and willful misrepresentations about Tremblay among CAPE members. He willfully slandered her and directly interfered with her ability to do her job as president

The report, obtained by iPolitics, found the petition Giannakoulis initiated to oust Tremblay set off a “movement” that “paralyzed” the union for nearly two years and affected all staff, directors and dues-paying members.

Gosselin’s report also upheld a previous finding that Giannakoulis was complicit in the same voting irregularities that led to Tremblay’s suspension and recall vote.

The investigations committee, struck by the NEC to probe Tremblay’s complaints, received Gosselin’s report last December and recommended Giannakoulis be suspended for two years. That would have removed him as union vice-president, chair of the finance committee and as a local vice-president.

Tremblay’s statement of claim argues Giannakoulis and his supporters pushed the hearing on his possible discipline into January 2018 when a new president and slate of directors “who were known allies” of Giannakoulis and the newly elected Phillips took office.

It alleges the new NEC decided to set up a new investigation committee to examine the process followed in the Gosselin investigation. The members of the original investigation committee were not consulted for their views.

By the end of February, the claim alleges the NEC decided to reject the previous committee’s recommended discipline and take “no further action against Mr. Giannakoulis.”

“Mr. Giannakoulis has to date not been held accountable for his wrongdoing as predetermined by the Gosselin investigation and in accordance with the (investigation committee’s) recommendations,” Tremblay’s claim reads.

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