Pressure increases to change laws to oust badly behaving councillors

UPDATE: Orléans MPP Stephen Blais introduced the private member's bill on March 8, 2021.

An Ottawa MPP is demanding changes to provincial laws to remove city councillors from office if they've been found to have engaged in egregious misconduct.

Orléans MPP Stephen Blais plans to table a private member's bill later this month that calls for a non-political process that could see a municipal councillor unseated for particularly serious violations of workplace harassment rules.

"Hopefully it will articulate to everyone just how serious we take these kinds of things today," Blais told CBC.

"They should have been taken seriously for a long time. We can't go back and change the past, but we can make sure that they're taken seriously now and that this kind of behaviour is not acceptable and there are serious consequences for it."

WATCH | Stephen Blais speaks at Queen's Park:

Blais, a former city councillor for Cumberland ward, said he was motivated after CBC reports and two damning integrity commissioner reports revealed Coun. Rick Chiarelli harassed former staff members and job applicants for years, as well as abused his power of office.

Although Chiarelli was docked 15-months pay and stripped of some of the authority of his office and the rest of council publicly urged him to resign last fall, he remains the councillor for College ward because there is no mechanism to remove him.

"It was clear that a remedy was needed," said Blais. "Any person working in any other work environment would have lost their job as a result of this type of action ... our elected leaders should be held to a higher standard, not to a lower one."

He said while he was moved to act because of incidents in his hometown, Blais points out that the situation is not unique to Ottawa. Last year, for instance, Brampton's integrity commissioner found that Coun. Gurpreet Dhillon sexually harassed a Brampton business woman while on an official trip to Turkey in November 2019. Dhillon remains in office.

Blais' bill is the latest pressure on the provincial government to change the Ontario Municipal Act, which demands a councillor's removal in certain situations — including poor attendance — but not for harassment or other grievous behaviour.

Last Friday, three women who used to work in the councillors' office launched a petition to change the laws. Stephanie Dobbs, one of the formal complainants to the integrity commission, Victoria Laaber and Nancy O'Brien — both witnesses in the investigation — are also participating Monday in a virtual roundtable on safe workplaces for political staff hosted by Ottawa Centre MPP Joel Harden, who has also called for changes to provincial regulations.

PC government quietly launched review

If passed, Blais' bill — which was supposed to be tabled Monday, on International Women's Day, but was delayed to Mar. 22 for logistical reasons — would empower a city's integrity commissioner to suggest a judicial review for councillors who have engaged in serious misconduct that falls short of a criminal offence, such as sexual harassment or certain sorts of violence in the workplace.

It would then be up to a judge, or panel of judges, to review the file and decide whether the councillor should be ejected from elected office.

Last November, Ottawa's city council passed a motion calling for a similar process to be instituted.

At the time, Municipal Affairs and Housing Minister Steve Clark said, "the ministry is not considering any changes to the Municipal Act."

However, late last Friday, the government quietly released a news statement that it is "launching consultations with the municipal sector to strengthen accountability for council members."

The statement includes a comment by Clark that that it is "critical that everyone feels safe and respected in the workplace, and that they know there are accountability measures in place for members who violate codes of conduct."

In an email, a spokesperson for Clark added, "Our consultations with the municipal sector will help the province determine what, if any, changes are required to ensure everyone can feel safe and respected in the workplace."

There were no details about the scope or timeline of the consultations, nor how they would affect Blais' private member's bill.