Punishment was front and centre last night at Barrie City Hall.
The city's integrity commissioner didn't recommend a penalty against committee member Robb Meier for a controversial Facebook post made in May, but Coun. Mike McCann, who filed the complaint, pushed for a lifetime ban against Meier from sitting on municipal committees.
Meier, who's chair of the Barrie Accessibility Advisory Committee and the Active Transportation and Sustainability Advisory Committee, was investigated by integrity commissioner Suzanne Craig after stating on Facebook on May 6 that city council "openly display(ed) homophobia." The post was made following a discussion around funding for a rainbow crosswalk.
At last night's general committee meeting, city clerk Wendy Cooke said future councils aren't bound by decisions made during this term, but McCann was adamant about imposing a lifetime committee ban for Meier.
"No, I won't accept that. I'm looking for life," McCann said.
After going in camera (behind closed doors) around 11 p.m., Monday, for close to an hour, councillors opted to suspend Meier from city committees pending a final decision at an upcoming council meeting.
When reached by BarrieToday Tuesday morning, Meier said he had no comment on what transpired at general committee.
In her 15-page report, which was presented to councillors last night, Craig didn't recommend a penalty against Meier.
McCann took issue with her report.
"I've got to be honest with you, Ms. Craig, I'm quite disappointed in your report and your findings," he said.
Craig said she was looking at "sanctioning principles" as part of the complaint protocol, "and I don't take that lightly."
"When I look at sanctions, I have one individual who's being investigated with two complaints, and one complaint has not been finished," said Craig, who noted in her report that the second complaint from McCann was not pursued because it bore resemblance as the initial grievance and was deemed to fall under the same parameters.
"You can't punish a person for a second action if you haven't completed the first action, because there's supposed to be a deterrent with sanctioning," she added.
McCann also alluded to an alleged third incident, but no details were provided at the council table about what supposedly happened late last week.
"I believe that this just needs to stop," McCann said.
Coun. Keenan Aylwin asked McCann if he'd filed another complaint with the integrity commissioner.
McCann responded that he had not, adding "I believe that we don't need to waste Ms. Craig's time. ... As a public figure and an elected official, sure, I may be who I am, but you know what? This is wrong."
In Craig's report, Meier says he did not call a councillor, or even council, "homophobic" in the Facebook post. Rather, he says he characterized the discussion around the crosswalk as homophobic.
Meier's Facebook post from May 6 reads: "Tonight I'm watching Barrie City Council openly display homophobia as they refuse to spend $7000 on a rainbow crosswalk. #Pathetic $400,000 for Tennis courts was OK though eh Robert Thomson & Mike McCann. You guys just burned through more than $7000 of Staff time arguing this. What a joke."
McCann filed his first complaint to the integrity commissioner on May 14.
Craig called Meier's post "offensive, insulting and derogatory," and involving "disparaging language" while referencing two sitting councillors, but she did not think it warranted any punishment.
She said committee members are held to a higher standard of behaviour and conduct than an ordinary private citizen.
The code of conduct says members of council and boards shall "not make inappropriate comments or gestures to or about an individual where such conduct is known or ought reasonable to be known to be offensive to the person(s) to whom they are directed or are about ... (or) display materials or transmit communications that are inappropriate, offensive, insulting or derogatory."
Because the post was made on his personal Facebook page, Meier told Craig he didn't believe it fell under city's code of conduct.
However, Craig says in her report that Meier was wrong in that assessment and his social media is captured under the code. She determined the code was breached inadvertently, however, but added a "lack of understanding" of the rules won't be an acceptable defence for people going forward.
