Juno News - London councillor PAY SUSPENDED for criticizing drug policies

00:00:00.000 municipal politics oftentimes gets completely overlooked in this country but every now and then

00:00:08.000 you come across an incredible story and that is one that we have for you today the city of london

00:00:13.840 ontario was the site of canada's first ever safer supply exemption these so-called safer supply

00:00:21.280 hydromorphone tablets have been given out to recovering drug addicts as a way to try to give

00:00:26.080 them a drug that is not fentanyl that wouldn't result in toxic drug overdose well today london

00:00:33.040 ontario is unfortunately a test case for failure in drug policy the city is overrun with homelessness

00:00:41.520 drug addiction as well as prostitution one city councilor susan stevenson has decided to use her 0.99

00:00:48.880 position to speak up on behalf of her residents to do her job in other terms to actually oppose 0.85

00:00:56.000 the policies that have been put in place in london that have resulted in the destruction of her city

00:01:02.240 the sad state of her city and for doing her job and for speaking up susan stevenson has just been

00:01:07.360 given a penalty of a 30-day suspension without pay all for social media posts calling out the failure

00:01:15.120 of these drug addiction policies well joining us now on the faulkner show is london city councillor

00:01:22.080 susan stevenson as we've just discussed councillor stevenson has been found by the integrity

00:01:28.240 commissioner of london to be in breach of the city's code of conduct to be accused of bullying

00:01:34.720 and harassing city staff for what appears to be tweets about the city's biggest issue councillor take

00:01:42.240 us through what's going on here what have you done that has made the city of london so upset with you

00:01:48.000 yeah that's a great question and what it appears is it's the uh persistent discussions and questions

00:01:55.760 regarding as you said the biggest issue in this city and particularly in my ward my ward is ground

00:02:02.560 zero for the drug crisis in our city and there is a tremendous amount of suffering the people on the

00:02:09.120 streets the businesses and the residents who live nearby and every day i get many emails of increasing

00:02:16.480 despair and yet uh me talking about it appears to be an issue i mean this is bizarre right because

00:02:24.240 from what i can see in the publicly available report all they take issue with are your tweets your social

00:02:30.400 media posts and if you read through the posts it doesn't exactly appear to be bullying or harassment

00:02:37.120 or anything like that as you point out uh counselor it appears as though you're you are talking about

00:02:42.160 the issue of the day and you are speaking up on behalf of your uh your constituents this is a serious

00:02:48.640 free speech issue i mean what are the implications of this yeah well i'm very concerned this is way bigger

00:02:54.640 than me right this is uh an elected city councillor representing the dire needs of her constituents 1.00

00:03:02.160 and uh civic administration is saying that me advocating for my residence is a harassment and why why do you

00:03:14.320 think it's this issue in particular that has that has got so many of these bureaucrats in london as well as

00:03:21.040 likely other counselors and this integrity commissioner so upset i mean i i can't for the life of me think

00:03:27.040 counselor that if you were accusing london of being too harsh on drug addiction homelessness and

00:03:34.480 prostitution in your city i can't imagine they'd be coming after you for it so so why is it this issue

00:03:39.200 in particular that they're so concerned about well that's a great question i mean there seems to be an

00:03:46.240 agenda that i'm not sure where it's coming from but there seems to be an agenda that is going through

00:03:54.880 that i am causing problems around right this that we had uh the all the women's agencies sign a

00:04:01.040 complaint against me which the integrity commissioner tossed out but saying that i'm dangerous that me

00:04:07.600 asking for accountability is dangerous and now you know we've got civic administration saying

00:04:15.680 that i'm bullying and harassing even though the integrity commissioner says in the report

00:04:21.040 my tone and words are moderated and i sound respectful but it's being experienced as harassment

00:04:28.880 and so they're finding it to be a serious breach of the code such that they want to take away a month's

00:04:36.080 pay and this is going to have in my concern this is going to have a chilling effect on people being

00:04:42.800 willing to run for office to enact change in ways that they think are beneficial for our city

00:04:50.800 if you're going to be under this kind of public shaming i mean i've had a lot of headlines and

00:04:57.600 articles publicly shaming me the integrity commissioner does the same thing he makes

00:05:02.720 statements that i have responded to saying they are completely false and they're offensive to me and

00:05:08.400 they're statements that say things like councillor stevenson has made widely known that she objects to

00:05:14.640 the presence of homeless people in her business district i have never said such a thing i don't believe

00:05:20.000 it i think it's offensive i told them to take it to please take it out of the report and they

00:05:24.560 haven't done so it's still in the final report making claims about what i believe which i have

00:05:29.520 stated is incorrect the first time i saw that was in the october 10th preliminary findings report

00:05:35.920 and you'll notice on my social media on october 14th i posted for anyone who thinks that this is

00:05:41.760 what i believe it is not true and this is why and it's been pinned on all my social media and it

00:05:46.640 doesn't matter they get to say what they think i believe even if i say i don't believe it and and

00:05:53.600 as you point out you're being you're being suspended uh for without pay for 30 days i mean

00:06:00.400 you're allowed to do your job as a counselor they're just not going to pay you for the job that you're

00:06:03.520 going to do for the next 30 days because you're not you're you're not willing to toe the line here

00:06:08.560 i mean this this this looks very dangerous this forced ideological conformity on a particular

00:06:15.280 agenda which i have to believe uh counselor did the majority of people in your city actually um

00:06:22.160 agree with the city here they actually agree with the policies of safe supply uh of allowing

00:06:29.120 london to be in the position that it's in surely not yeah well sadly we don't talk about it a lot

00:06:34.880 right because that's frowned upon um but i have been trying to you know in a 25 voter turnout and

00:06:41.600 with dire situation our city is in serious trouble i want to talk about the issues i want to educate

00:06:47.360 the people so we can have a conversation and we can hear their views but that too seems to be frowned

00:06:53.280 upon and even though uh we had there was a cbc article done this spring saying how do all of the

00:06:59.360 other counselors feel about susan's counselor stevenson's social media and the mayor came out

00:07:04.800 and said you know this is not the right way to do this it's it's too nuanced a conversation to have

00:07:09.920 on social media and yet two months later the ontario big city mayors puts out a video with homeless people

00:07:16.400 with our mayor in it launching a social media campaign on this issue and so it seems to be it's not

00:07:23.680 really uh it seems to be what i'm saying that's the problem am i allowed is there a way to respectfully

00:07:33.200 disagree on an undecided matter of council and and one of the issues is that the leadership at the city

00:07:40.240 has created a situation with this whole of community response that city administration and the whole of

00:07:46.080 community are bringing forward programs and services to council for approval with no options

00:07:52.800 without council having set policy direction first so had council said we want a program that supports

00:08:00.480 people in encampments or we want a program that reduces encampments or we want a program that supports

00:08:07.600 the community with the impacts of encampments or some combination of that it would be decided and

00:08:13.680 then staff would be able to go and produce that but right now we don't know what's coming and so in

00:08:18.560 april they say there's going to be a long term all season encampment strategy and i'm concerned that

00:08:24.640 i'm not going to like it that that it's not going to be what i want but as a councillor i'm not allowed

00:08:30.160 to know what they're working on and now i find out i'm not allowed to ask questions to try to get

00:08:35.600 information prior to the vote coming this is really concerning to me they say it's uh the prevailing view

00:08:42.960 was widely canvassed well i don't believe that's true we had we do not do a great job our budget in

00:08:50.080 a population of over 470 000 had 43 respondents i mean and that's just the budget this is something

00:08:58.480 that is impacting residents they they can't they don't feel safe going to their park they don't feel

00:09:03.200 safe going to the theater and parking this is desperate desperate people are saying they feel like

00:09:09.360 shut-ins because there's so much drug dealing happening right outside their front door that

00:09:14.000 they're afraid to leave i've got seniors on odsp who need the free meals offered at say the arcade

00:09:20.880 street mission and they're unable to access them because they might be a recovering addict that doesn't

00:09:26.400 want to be near the open drug use that is everywhere some of them push oxygen tanks and they are afraid

00:09:32.400 to be near people who are uh openly smoking uh publicly illegal drugs and yet i am in breach of the code

00:09:43.440 of conduct doing my fulfilling my oath to represent the desperation in the needs of constituents on an

00:09:52.720 undecided matter of council every time council decides i'm quiet and we go on to the next thing

00:09:58.960 but even that is deemed to be a significant breach a serious breach as far as this integrity commissioner

00:10:05.600 is concerned and they are a contractor that we hired who has an opinion that seems to have a lot of

00:10:13.200 narrative and a lot of opinion in it right and i don't see the evidence to support uh you know they

00:10:21.440 say that they are concerned with um serving the public well what serves the public yes we want

00:10:28.240 ethical high standards i want to be held a high standard but is stopping me from communicating

00:10:34.720 in the best interest of the public it's not been my experience it's not what i hear from residents

00:10:40.640 in the last year almost anywhere i go in the city people come up and thank me and they ask me to not

00:10:46.160 back down to keep speaking for them right and i can attest to that because we spoke in may in your

00:10:53.680 district and we saw that firsthand we saw the support that you have in your district now here's

00:10:59.280 the question i have for you now in the report it says that they're not going to recommend forcing

00:11:04.000 you into one of those re-education programs because they don't think you're going to even bother to

00:11:08.480 listen to them so when you when you when you do eventually continue speaking up on behalf of your

00:11:14.000 constituents and calling out the city for their handling of the drugs crisis the homelessness

00:11:19.200 crisis in the prostitution crisis what's going to happen to you then well that we're going to find

00:11:24.320 that out right like they call me defiant and doubled down and unaware of my impact on others and and i

00:11:31.600 i feel quite to the contrary i have been moderated tone and words and respectful i haven't gone against

00:11:38.720 a decided matter of counsel i'm limited to my five minutes it's it's enforced by the presiding officer

00:11:44.880 they're saying that all of this bullying and harassment has happened on the floor of council

00:11:49.600 chambers with all counselors present and with uh publicly recorded videos and they only in the final

00:11:57.600 report uh gave me the decency i think of providing the dates and time stamps on the alleged behavior

00:12:06.160 and i want public opinion on that do you think that is inappropriate a serious breach do you think that

00:12:12.880 it deserves taking away the pay like potentially the ability of somebody to pay their mortgage payment

00:12:18.400 and put groceries on the table uh for somebody who ran for council to help right and i imagine that

00:12:28.960 they're trying to use you as an example maybe not just in london but also to other municipalities

00:12:35.280 we know that southern ontario has this problem right the the homelessness and drug addiction crisis

00:12:40.560 the safe supply crisis is plaguing cities all throughout southern ontario and you know your

00:12:47.440 city as unfortunately basically ground zero for safe supply it was where the safe supply exemption

00:12:53.360 was first granted so perhaps uh perhaps counselor they're looking at this and saying well you're

00:12:59.200 you're you're effective on social media you're embarrassing the city because now canadians are paying

00:13:03.520 attention so no one else in any other municipality better you know dare think about doing what you're

00:13:09.600 doing we need to force this we need to we need to force everyone in line i mean that is that is

00:13:14.320 very dangerous for other counselors as well outside of london that is why it's so much bigger than me

00:13:21.200 right i believe that we need a lot more counselors like me in 2026 in order to look at the financials and

00:13:28.480 look at accountability from the perspective of delivering service not about finding cuts but to ensure that

00:13:33.760 the needs in our city are met they're tremendous and when we walked around in may it wasn't it was the

00:13:40.160 some of the homeless and addicted people were running for your camera they want to speak they don't feel

00:13:45.680 that their needs are being met this is not me against homeless people or addicted people it's it's me

00:13:50.640 listening to them and they're pleased for service they say where are the millions of dollars going why does

00:13:56.800 it cost forty five hundred dollars for a mattress on a floor uh with 29 other people and i don't even

00:14:03.920 get it guaranteed every night in fact some of them have policies you can only stay so many nights in a

00:14:08.320 row so and we heard other concerns about policies that again counselors we are not allowed to know

00:14:15.280 i've just had to approve 420 in freedom of information fees just to see the contracts

00:14:22.640 that during this term of council i approved some of them but i'm not allowed to see them the public's

00:14:29.040 not allowed to see them and this is really really concerning to me that i do feel that i'm being made

00:14:36.000 an example of in the hope that i would not run again and that no one who thinks like i do would run

00:14:41.760 again and that's why this is so important to me is this like this is freedom of expression of an elected

00:14:49.520 official right never did i think this was the case i i have told people i will speak because you

00:14:57.600 have fears of reprisal in your neighborhood in your employment i am protected i'm the elected official

00:15:03.920 and now i'm finding out i may not be yeah and and this is not this is not democratic at all right because

00:15:11.360 the people of london voted for you people in your ward voted for you they didn't get a say in who

00:15:16.720 this integrity commissioner is they don't get to hold this integrity commissioner to account and

00:15:22.560 this person is going to dictate whether or not you can earn your salary that you earned and or and

00:15:29.440 frankly even hold on to your job is there a possibility counselor that if you continue to

00:15:34.560 do the job that you were elected to do you could be forced out of council that is my concern when i

00:15:41.680 entered uh when i entered when i attended amo in august during the bear pit when they were asking the

00:15:48.640 ministers questions there was a counselor from pickering who got up and stood up and said that

00:15:54.400 you know there's these uh you know the far-right counselors that have to be dealt with and they are

00:16:01.760 pleading with the ministers to bring in legislation that would allow them to remove a duly elected city

00:16:08.480 counselor who was breaching the code of conduct and my understanding is this came about because of a

00:16:14.560 sexual harassment charge in ottawa but now it's being potentially used to take me out because i'm being

00:16:23.280 deemed to be in serious breach of a code of conduct with moderated words and tone and respectful sounding

00:16:30.640 uh and not allegations of you know behind closed doors behavior but in recorded session on council

00:16:38.880 chamber floor like right and and this legislation potentially would stop would would take me out 0.99

00:16:48.000 what i just don't understand here in this we have this discussion regarding you know free speech

00:16:53.360 legislation at a federal level where the the people who are on the other side of this debate you know in

00:17:00.160 municipal politics it's not it's not partisan politics right but but the people on the other

00:17:04.640 side of this debate it doesn't seem as though counselor they understand that if the shoe was

00:17:09.600 on the other foot they could be facing the same issues right if there was a if there was a council

00:17:14.240 that was ideologically aligned with you and there was and there was a counselor standing on her own

00:17:20.000 opposing the initiatives of a council doing what she's doing as an elected representative but disagreed

00:17:25.200 on on on the other side of this debate this this could apply to her as well i just don't understand

00:17:31.200 why people on the other side of this debate i don't want to call them on the left because you know this

00:17:36.480 really isn't a right left debate but on the other side of this issue they're not standing up for you are

00:17:40.720 they no and it's interesting because we are at a place in our country where things are very polarized

00:17:49.440 so we have the current federal government that is very much you know the vancouver model decriminalization

00:17:55.440 of drugs is span safer supply but what looks to be an incoming federal government with the opposite

00:18:01.200 with the alberta model of recovery and and you know stopping safer supply and then provincially we've got

00:18:09.680 the province coming out and the premier saying to his chief medical officer of health i hear your

00:18:15.840 opinion and i reject it right we've got the bureaucrats of or the bureaucratic realm of the public health

00:18:22.720 department saying we agree with the vancouver model and then the premier is saying no we're going in a

00:18:30.000 different direction i so there is this polarization it's not like i'm out there um with some crazy ideas

00:18:38.080 i'm talking about what the prevailing provincial government is asking for and what looks to be the

00:18:43.760 next federal government is looking for so yes the other side of this argument should want me to

00:18:50.480 speak freely because they want they deserve the right to speak freely as things move possibly in

00:18:56.480 the other direction right and i just don't know where those calls are you you can't find them you

00:19:02.320 can't find them at a municipal level you can't find them at a federal level you can't you can't find

00:19:07.120 people on the other side of this debate saying hold on if the shoe was on the other foot this could be a

00:19:11.680 problem for us i now want to ask you this question because it was last week or perhaps two weeks ago

00:19:16.880 where the london police chief the police chief of your city testified in ottawa and and and basically

00:19:23.920 said that london safe supply drugs are being diverted to far northern communities in ontario i mean the

00:19:31.920 situation in your city is having national implications people in this country should be paying attention to

00:19:38.240 this story uh explain to us how this has happened well that's a that's a great question and i think

00:19:47.360 it's coming from these failed uh policies that we've got like they're obviously failing us like open our

00:19:54.640 eyes and look and just listen to the people i heard this from the local residents when i first ran in 2022

00:20:02.480 so it's great to hear the chief saying it because it validates what i've been hearing for two years

00:20:07.280 that safer supply has been a huge problem and the precursor to much of the problems that that area

00:20:13.040 is facing which sadly is expanding outside of that realm now because i've got council supporting

00:20:20.240 me now on some of these decisions where it was 14 to 1 before things are passing now to say no and

00:20:26.800 enough and you know i don't know exactly reason the reason why these votes are changing but i think the

00:20:33.120 pain is now expanding outside of just my ward right and and to hear the chief say that they're finding

00:20:41.520 uh dilaudid pills from london ending up in far northern communities just just shows you that these

00:20:48.480 drugs are being diverted all across the country and are resulting in insignificant addiction issues

00:20:54.160 we touched on this a little bit counselor but one of the issues that you have really been trying to

00:20:59.520 raise awareness about is the prevalence of of prostitution in your ward and trying to stand up for

00:21:05.600 women that are being forced into the sex trade just how bad is that situation in your city yeah well 1.00

00:21:12.880 even one is terrible right and we are known for being a human trafficking uh high risk area because

00:21:20.800 we're right on the highway between uh windsor and toronto and it's a it's a huge huge problem and again

00:21:27.200 things have changed somehow things have changed without us noticing that the agencies that were

00:21:34.960 supporting these women in exiting out of that and they will you know they will say that they're not

00:21:40.560 they're all against human trafficking and i i believe them that that's true but they we are now supporting

00:21:46.880 women in sexual exploitation and there's a movement for decriminalization of sex work and everything 0.98

00:21:55.280 okay fine if you want to get donations and and lobby for that again i'm all for freedom of expression

00:22:02.160 but with taxpayer-funded dollars that all of our organizations that support women have come out

00:22:08.160 and attacked me and filed complaints calling me dangerous because i question the practice of trying

00:22:14.880 to bring empowerment and dignity to our most vulnerable homeless addicted women who are you know selling their

00:22:22.560 bodies to survive and and that we're not even allowed to have that conversation without you'll see many of

00:22:30.400 those agencies still have pinned to their top of their social media the uh public letter condemning me and

00:22:37.360 condemning council and the police board if they didn't find a way to silence me pinned to their social

00:22:42.080 media even though the integrity commissioner said absolutely in no way was anything that i did incorrect

00:22:47.840 so this is a this is a conversation that we have to have we have london as a safe city for women and 1.00

00:22:54.640 girls as one of our top priorities and yet we to discuss what is a safe london for women and girls is

00:23:02.160 it helping women exit the south uh the sex trade or is it helping them to bring empowerment and dignity to

00:23:08.240 it there's those are two like vastly different choices and you can have both in the city but not both as

00:23:14.880 council endorsed policies council gets to choose what creates a safe london for women and girls in

00:23:22.320 terms of sexual exploitation the laws were just upheld last fall and uh we are we not bound as council to

00:23:31.280 abide the laws of this country because it doesn't seem that way we're supporting people who use drugs

00:23:37.280 and now we had this shelter that was supporting women in the sex trade i want support for all of

00:23:45.200 these people but i want support on a pathway to legal activity and to freedom right not using taxpayer

00:23:53.280 dollars to perpetuate the problem right i mean absolutely not because it's it does not help the

00:24:00.000 people who are trapped in a very very difficult situation so counselor i have to ask you who

00:24:07.680 exactly is this integrity commissioner that seems to have so much power over debate at city council

00:24:13.920 yes so this is a contractor that the city hired in june of 2023 it's a firm called principles integrity

00:24:21.520 and there are two principles uh mr abrams and ms atwood and and do is is london their only client do these

00:24:30.320 guys just focus on your city no my understanding is they have many many municipalities across the city

00:24:36.480 many like i i believe it's 20 or more so so and so this the this this company principles integrity is

00:24:45.280 that what they're called uh they they can basically dictate uh what is allowed to be said by counselors

00:24:53.040 at 20 different municipalities across ontario how is this not like a major democratic crisis here i just

00:25:00.400 don't understand how this is not a bigger issue yeah let's make it a big issue it's a big issue and

00:25:04.960 it's going to be a bigger issue as we go into 2026 with uh most common sense people choosing out of any uh

00:25:12.240 uh desire to run and and represent our city and our residents i mean these guys are unaccountable

00:25:20.240 they are appointed i'm guessing by the city administration right or are they did council

00:25:26.400 get to decide that they were going to hire principles integrity yeah so that's interesting

00:25:30.400 too and i'm going to look it up uh council it's it's a council uh approved contractor we approved it

00:25:37.120 in june i'm assuming it went to tender but all that came before council was

00:25:41.840 a consent item to say we're choosing principles integrity as our integrity commissioner so what

00:25:48.240 process happened there i'm not sure but council this is our contractor and if they're not giving us

00:25:55.040 you know the service that we want then we need to choose another one and that's something that

00:25:59.120 i'm going to bring up i asked and had passed through council a review of our code of conduct back in may

00:26:05.920 because there were all these concerns and uh civic administration has not done it because they said

00:26:12.400 that the province is looking into it and i just found that out a few weeks ago asking for an update

00:26:18.480 on when i would receive a council approved review of the code of conduct so that's a whole another issue

00:26:24.320 that i have to look into um council gets to choose we could choose another integrity commissioner tomorrow if

00:26:31.200 we want and i think it's something we need to really look at are we getting the service that we

00:26:35.600 want and what kind of as you said unaccountable impact are they having across our province right and and

00:26:43.440 obviously they appear to be extremely biased because uh it appears as though what what has been presented

00:26:49.120 by them is not harassment or bullying of any kind do you happen to know of the other municipalities that

00:26:54.800 this integrity commissioner company has been contracted out to um i don't know all of them

00:27:01.760 i do believe uh they are the integrity commissioner for pickering because in the uh final report that

00:27:08.240 i got the first one it actually said councillor robinson instead of councillor stevenson in the 30-day sanction

00:27:14.960 so uh they issued that final report and then someone must have told them about it i assume or they

00:27:20.160 caught it themselves and they reissued the report but it actually came with another city's

00:27:24.400 councillor on it so and and this is this is councillor lisa robinson who is facing a similar uh

00:27:31.920 issue in her counts in in pickering so did they copy and paste what they sent to lisa robinson to

00:27:37.680 you is that is that what this appears to be i don't know how much of it certainly at least the

00:27:41.760 sanction portion unbelievable that is yeah well like i guess it should be believable at this point

00:27:47.360 based off of everything we've been told so far yeah but we get what we accept right and i think

00:27:53.040 it's time that we stop accepting this okay so the next question i have for you and maybe maybe this

00:27:58.080 will be sort of the the last question here counselor is is there any recourse that you have with this

00:28:04.880 decision if if council goes and votes through and they do take your pay away do you have a way to

00:28:11.280 challenge this is there a way to escalate this up the chain and and have it challenged yeah it's another

00:28:18.320 great question so last year when i went through this over a social media post where i didn't completely

00:28:23.280 black out the faces of um some homeless individuals i said to my council colleagues i am being found in

00:28:31.520 breach without having had the integrity commissioner asked me a single thing the first of communication

00:28:39.280 i received from the integrity commissioner found me in breach of the code of conduct they never asked me

00:28:44.720 if i took the picture they never asked me if i had permission um it was irrelevant i was found guilty

00:28:50.960 and i said to my call council colleagues they haven't even asked me or given me an opportunity prior to

00:28:57.680 finding me in breach this is very concerning right we have an opportunity to respond to the complaint

00:29:05.120 prior to a verdict and council was not interested in they said the integrity commissioner's rule it's not

00:29:13.200 for us to question that and they said to me there are two paths the judicial review and the ombudsman

00:29:20.720 i said but council could decide here right now that they're going to expect their contractor to follow

00:29:25.360 the protocol that's part of the code of conduct that i'm being held to and council said no you have

00:29:30.080 other paths i brought forward to council uh the pitch to have them cover my judicial review because that

00:29:37.760 was the that is the only way to be undone from the verdict right so i'm being found here guilty of

00:29:47.120 bullying harassment and targeting of city administration and the only way to undo that devastating in my

00:29:56.240 opinion uh conclusion is to do a judicial review which means fifteen to twenty thousand dollars as you're

00:30:04.800 taking my pay away potentially for a month so you know maybe if millionaires are running for

00:30:10.240 council great you can afford to maybe fight this but the average person who runs is not going to

00:30:15.360 have that kind of money council said they would not even second my motion would not even discuss

00:30:21.600 whether a judicial review so fine i filed an ontario ombudsman complaint about last year's and that is

00:30:28.240 currently under investigation still so no the truth is yes there's a path but it's too costly for the

00:30:36.400 average person and so i am subjected to the um i'm subjected to this contractor that we have hired who

00:30:48.800 it's this is just so disappointing it's just very very disappointing place to be

00:30:52.640 unaccountable unaccountable again yeah and so the this i this ideologue who is unaccountable is going

00:31:01.280 to dictate to the people of london what their counselors can and can't say and the punishment

00:31:07.200 that that that he decides is going to be what it is i mean this is this is something that i think canadians

00:31:12.400 should be paying significant attention to if it's happening in london it could happen in your municipality

00:31:18.320 wherever the issue wherever an issue like this or a similar issue comes up uh counselor if there if

00:31:24.720 there is if there is a possibility for the public to get behind an initiative to donate or to support

00:31:32.160 this this cause if you do end up escalating it let us know because i think that canadians would be

00:31:37.760 willing to put their support behind it and it's something that i would be willing to share to our

00:31:42.560 audience as well is there anything else that you want the canadian people to know about what's

00:31:47.440 happening here um and and what information they may need to be aware about yes thank you uh and i

00:31:54.000 appreciate that and interestingly when i looked into that when i was doing the judicial review request last

00:31:59.840 or the beginning of this year um i was told that any kind of fundraising or anything would again be a

00:32:05.360 breach of code of conduct so so i appreciate the offer there but apparently that too is not an option

00:32:11.680 of course not right of course not why would they want the people to be involved

00:32:15.040 so the integrity commissioner their verdict cannot be re re um you know that just stands sadly there's

00:32:26.800 nothing that council can do about it but the sanctions that are applied and the way that that

00:32:32.000 report is received is a hundred percent up to council so this is just a contractor that was hired

00:32:39.040 to uphold the our code of conduct to the standards that to which we believe are appropriate this is

00:32:46.240 a hundred percent up to council they can do whatever they want with this report up to the point of a 90

00:32:52.000 day pay suspension so council could say we think 30 days isn't enough we think she should have 90 and

00:32:58.400 that's what can happen a 90 day paid deduction um they could say you know what we do not like the way this

00:33:04.880 report reads this does not uh fulfill the mandate that we want to uphold as this current london council

00:33:12.240 term and uh we could look into getting another integrity commissioner this could just be filed and

00:33:18.000 received right so so you know this is up to the this is up to council to decide who are we as a city

00:33:24.480 how much do we value the free expression of our elected officials and and and you know with respect

00:33:31.040 to your council colleagues uh do you have an idea of how council will vote on this i don't because

00:33:38.960 they aren't aware of it yet unless things have gone through the grapevine um they aren't even aware of

00:33:44.400 it yet so once they are aware of it um you know it'll be interesting to see last time uh it was nine to six

00:33:54.080 this time i will not be voting because um you know there's a punery interest for me

00:33:59.840 so it'll be up to my colleagues and you know a seven seven would allow me to keep my whole pay

00:34:06.240 but really what kind of decision is that and where are we going to go to next and what is going to

00:34:11.520 happen out of this recommendation report is it clear for me how to avoid another sanction

00:34:18.640 persistent questions like so am i allowed to ask once twice once per meeting once per topic

00:34:25.120 um like what where is the line so that if i chose to avoid a sanction going forward that i know that

00:34:33.440 there's a clear line that i need to meet last time it was the faces need to be completely blurred i've done

00:34:38.480 that since what is it this time basically it's don't put civic administration in a position where they

00:34:46.400 experience it as harassment i i can't control somebody else's experience well exactly exactly right

00:34:54.800 and you if i'm moderated and respectful and i follow the rules and i'm still a serious breach of the code

00:35:02.640 of conduct then either i get to stop communicating or what's going to happen this is going to keep

00:35:12.720 happening and i'm just going to work for free well i mean i i guess i guess what they're just trying

00:35:19.040 to tell you is you're not you're not really allowed to hold these unaccountable people to any

00:35:23.200 level of account that might be the message they're trying to send us but i will say that i think

00:35:28.000 we we we all want you to keep talking about these issues we want every counselor to speak up on behalf

00:35:33.280 of their people and to speak up on behalf of these issues after all that's the whole idea of politics

00:35:38.640 right uh counselor we will leave it there thank you so much for your time uh and we really appreciate

00:35:44.160 it once again take care okay thank you very much harrison

Juno News - December 17, 2024

London councillor PAY SUSPENDED for criticizing drug policies

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