Jyoti Gondek takes questions after being sworn in as Calgary's Mayor
Episode Stats
Words per Minute
183.97838
Summary
Mayor Rahm Emanuel refuses to swear in Councillor Sean Chu, sparking a firestorm of controversy. Mayor Emanuel addresses the matter and explains why he felt it wasn t appropriate for him to do so. Councillors Chu and Emanuel also sit down in person to discuss the matter.
Transcript
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One of the biggest things we'll be doing this week is actually having conversations
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with each other to find out what the priorities are for each councillor in each ward and how
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we can work with each other to accomplish a lot of things and also figuring out which
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councillors would like to serve on the various committees and boards and commissions so we'll
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be organizing ourselves getting ready for next Monday. You declined to swear in Councillor
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Sean Chu. Can you explain to us why you made that decision? I didn't feel it was appropriate
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for me to swear him in. Why is that? Because I didn't want to swear him in. It did not seem
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right to me. The justice was willing to do it and I felt that was more appropriate. Is
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this the first time in history that a fellow member of council hasn't been swearing by the
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mayor? I believe that there are various models that can be followed. I'm not sure what the
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history is. I was incredibly thrilled to be swearing in many of my colleagues and I think
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Justice Rook had a great chance to swear in a couple of members as well. I think it was
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a good shared responsibility. But it's now that the swearing in process has gone on, one
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with the justice and one and the others with yourself, is where does Councillor Chu fit in
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now post swearing in? He's the Ward 4 councillor so he has an incredible responsibility as do the rest
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of us and we will accomplish the tasks that we need to. But how are you going to be able
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to sort of interact with him and make him part of this team you've been talking about, the council team?
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Every team comes together in different ways. We shall see.
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Councillor Chu has opened the door to sit down and discuss with you in person about the incidents
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that are causing so much media storm. Have you taken him up on that opportunity?
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I'm focused on working with new members of council and ones that have returned and letting them enjoy
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this day of being sworn in. All of us are incredibly proud of what we've accomplished and we are
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looking forward to celebrating this day as ours. So I'm choosing to focus on that today.
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The future will dictate that. Today I'm incredibly focused on my family and my colleagues