A local council east of Toronto said it was canceling in-person sessions and moving meetings online, citing “increasingly hostile threats” against its members as an internal battle over a councilor intensifies.
The mayor and councilors of the City of Pickering are engaged in an escalating battle with a council member, who they say is linked to alt-right figures and has repeatedly disrupted meetings.
Ward 1 County. Lisa Robinson has had nine months’ pay taken from her colleagues over the past year after three successive investigations by the Integrity Commissioner found she had breached the code of conduct.
Robinson has denied any wrongdoing, asked a judge to overturn the integrity commissioner’s findings and alleged there was a conspiracy against her led by the city’s mayor.
Now, as the council prepares to hold its first meeting of the year, tensions have risen again with the release of a 13-minute video on the city’s official YouTube channel announcing the end of meetings in council person.
“Over the past two years, the Town of Pickering has witnessed a growing infiltration of alt-right individuals, ideologies and influences that have created an atmosphere of uncertainty, fear and intimidation in the within our council,” Mayor Kevin Ashe said in the video’s introduction.
The video traces a series of times the city and mayor allege that Robinson, who is still a sitting councilman, was involved with alt-right figures. It refers to meetings and town halls she held, as well as a controversial appearance on a far-right show where the host referred to the host called Robinson’s board colleagues “pedophiles” and “Nazis.”
At the end of the video, Ashe announced that official meetings would no longer take place in the council chambers. Instead, they will be held via a video conferencing platform, as was the case during the pandemic.
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“Increasing threats to our security demand action,” Ashe said in the video, which also included messages and voicemails that appear to reveal threats against council members. “This activity of our city must continue and will continue. »
No date has been set for the council’s return to in-person meetings, Ashe said in a statement to Global News. The city planned to move to virtual meetings for a year starting in the summer while the council chambers were under renovation.
“For the foreseeable future, meetings will continue in virtual format until a decision is made by the Municipal Clerk in consultation with the Administrative Director, the Corporate Security Specialist and the Mayor, in accordance with the regulations of city procedure,” Ashe said in his statement.
Advice. Robinson called the video “hilarious propaganda” in his own video response to the allegations, saying it “worked more in my favor by exposing the mayor” and claiming the mayor and council were using “intimidation tactics.”
Robinson claimed that Mayor Ashe and the council had “a disturbing tendency to label anyone who disagrees with them ‘alt-right'” and said she did not “dictate opinions or actions of anyone.”
Latest twist in two-year Pickering council battle comes weeks after Ford government introduced a bill at Queen’s Park this would allow cities to recall elected councilors in certain specific situations.
The bill, which has not yet been passed, would allow for the creation of a standard code of conduct for all municipalities and sanctions such as removal and disqualification of a member from office if they seriously violate the code.
The government said removal and disqualification could only take place if the Municipal Integrity Commissioner recommends it, the Ontario Integrity Commissioner agrees and councilors, except of the member in question, accept it unanimously in a vote.
Mayor Ashe has been a strong advocate for tougher sanctions when councilors violate the code of conduct, including possible removal from office.
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