Legal battles of strip club employee-turned substitute teacher

  Maria Stergiou, seen in these pix, is a former Montreal strip club employee who is now a substitute teacher at the EMSB with a unique knack of being at the centre of a lot of things.
   She has become locally noteworthy for her involvement in a couple of high-profile legal cases, one of which was resolved on Feb. 25 when she successfully overturned a refusal for workmen's compensation, as explained in this court judgment.
   On May 18, 2012 Stergiou, now 40, was working at Wanda's on DeMaisonneuve when another employee pushed her head downwards as a playful gesture.
   Stergiou reacted by pushing back and then hit her head and suffered a concussion.

   "Another waitress (L.) pushed my head down for a reason that is unknown, by reflex I pushed my head up, she still had her hand on my head so the impact was severe. This was all unexpected. I felt a lot of pressure on my neck and a crack. The reason I told employer a few days later is because I didn’t feel the symptoms of the whiplash right away and the employer wasn’t there." 

   Stergiou continued working for two months before filing for workers' comp and was eventually turned down but won on appeal and will now get that cash.
   Stergiou was previously involved in an legal epic saga indirectly involving Montreal Mayor Denis Coderre.
   Coderre, when serving as federal immigration minister, was accused by an immigration counsellor named Marie-Claude Montpetit of a variety of misdeeds. She said that Coderre allowed Eastern European sex workers into the country and also permitted 500 Pakistani terrorists into the country as well.
   Monpetit has explained all of the details in a series of easy-to-find blog postings which I won't link to, but they're um, quite intense.
   I've studied Coderre's career closely and don't feel very disturbed by the allegations.
   It's well known that Canada long offered sex performer visas, likely intended to discourage nice Canadian girls from filling those jobs, so the first complaint seems a bit obscure and as for the 500 Pakistani terrorists, well it seems that a decade later no problems have emerged from that.
   Some time after going after Coderre, Montpetit found herself under attack, as Stergiou complained that Montpetit had misrepresented herself as a lawyer when she hired her to help get her boyfriend citizenship.
  Stergiou attempted to sue Montpetit for $378,000 and there were charges against Montpetit as well, but both fizzled out and were unproven.
   Montpetit struck back with a lawsuit against Stergiou and 26 other individuals or institutions, including the local police. (Some links to those cases).
   The ever-determined Montpetit also claimed that Coderre had put Stergiou up to making the complaints.
   I do not know if Stergiou and Coderre have met.
   It's all a very messy business, probably not worth looking up, but I thought I'd do the service of explaining it to you in brief to save you the trouble.
   If you're interested in the Wanda's strip club angle, here's another management-worker saga that involves quite a bit of ugliness as well.