Ontario City Councillor Sanctioned With ‘Most Severe’ Pay Penalty

Pickering city councillor Lisa Robinson at the "1 Million March for Children" parental rights rally at Queen's Park, Toronto, on Sept. 20, 2024. The city has sanctioned Robinson for what it calls a pattern of “unacceptable behaviour.” Andrew Chen/The Epoch Times

The city council of Pickering, Ont., has voted to sanction one of its members for the third time in just over a year for what it calls a pattern of “unacceptable behaviour.”

Coun. Lisa Robinson was given a 90-day pay penalty last month, which followed a 60-day penalty in October 2023, which in turn followed a 30-day suspension in September 2023. The penalty is the “most severe” sanction council can impose under the Ontario Municipal Act.

The initial sanction occurred in September 2023 because of social media posts Robinson had made that identified some residents. An integrity commissioner investigation was launched at the time over claims she engaged in cyberbullying and intimidation.

Robinson was sanctioned a second time in October 2023 after motions introduced by Robinson were investigated and deemed “homophobic” and “transphobic” by the city’s integrity commissioner.

Robinson disputes these findings.

The third sanction follows an investigation into Robinson that concluded she had a pattern of “unacceptable behaviour.” A report by the city’s integrity commissioners says the investigation was prompted by a “lengthy complaint” against Robinson filed by Mayor Kevin Ashe.

The integrity commissioner examined each complaint, which included accusations that Robinson had violated the Code of Conduct for councillors, as well as the Human Rights Code. The commissioner said Robinson’s actions were in violation of the Code of Conduct. 

Robinson rejects the commissioners’ report, saying in an interview with The Epoch Times that there “were so many things in the report that were untrue.”

She also released a video on YouTube on Sept. 22 in response to the council’s decision.

“They sanctioned me last year, a single mother with mortgage payments, car payments, bills and a child to feed, to take away my salary for three months right before Christmas, knowing that I had no other source of income coming in, and now they’re trying to do it all over again,” she said in the video.

Published Commentary

Along with complaints from the mayor, the report noted there were some individual public complaints regarding a commentary by Robinson published in a local newspaper on Feb. 6.

In the commentary, Robinson questioned why Black History Month is observed in Canada while no other races are officially celebrated.  

“In the race to equality is not the celebration of one race over another in itself racist,” she wrote.

Robinson also commented in the piece that she felt like council was treating her like a “modern-day slave.”

“Now, I feel I was persecuted and punished and that my rights and freedoms were violated to the point where I felt discriminated,” she wrote.

The integrity commissioner said Robinson’s use of the word “slave” in her commentary was “provocative.”

“Councillor Robinson has referred to herself publicly in numerous different media as being a ‘modern-day slave’ because of the sanctions imposed for her breaches of the Code of Conduct,” the commissioner’s report said. “The language Councillor Robinson chose to use in describing the sanctions imposed by Council is clearly intended to be provocative.”

Robinson is accused of “denouncing and attacking Black History Month” in the commentary, according to the report.

Robinson told The Epoch Times that accusations that her commentary is racist are false. 

“There was absolutely nothing in there that was racist or anything else like that, nothing at all,” she said. “I had a lot of people from the black community reaching out to me and saying so.”

She has also been accused of associating with a politician who is “known for racist and Islamophobic views” in connection to her appearance at an event at which German politician Christine Anderson also appeared. Robinson says she simply spoke at the event alongside Anderson.

“While I have spoken at events alongside various politicians, including Ms. Anderson, this does not equate to association. I have never had her cellphone number or engaged in conversation with her outside of public events,” she said. “These accusations are unfounded and simply misleading.”

Anderson, a member of the European Parliament, rejected accusations of racism in an interview with True North.

Robinson was also accused in the report of publicly attacking the mayor in a social media post where she questioned why he would attend church while voting against prayer at council meetings.

She told The Epoch Times that the post was meant to question the mayor’s inconsistency.

“My social media post was not an attack; it was an expression of concern regarding the inconsistency between personal beliefs and public actions,” she said.

‘Breaches of the Code’

The commissioner’s report said all of the complaints against Robinson were substantiated and “constitute breaches of the Code.”

It recommended a 90-day suspension of pay, calling it “the most severe sanction which may be imposed by a council under the Municipal Act.”

The report acknowledges that Robinson has asked for a judicial review of her two prior sanctions.

“I put in an Integrity Commissioner report against it, but of course, they say that I’m just being retaliatory, and so they won’t investigate it,” she said in her Epoch Times interview. 

In her Sept. 22 YouTube video, Robinson said the Integrity Commissioner “failed to uphold their duty with procedural fairness” and that the report was based on “personal interpretations and feelings, not on facts or evidence.”

Robinson said it was a “disheartening reality” that the system is targeting those who “dare to speak the truth.”

“They’re doing everything they can to kick me out of council, basically,” she told The Epoch Times.

The integrity commissioner said in the report they were confident the decision was both independent and impartial.

“As a precautionary measure, key steps in the investigation, including the drafting of the findings set out in this report, were assigned to an experienced municipal expert with no prior engagement in matters involving Councillor Robinson,” the report said.

The integrity commissioner told The Epoch Times that “the report speaks for itself.”

“As with all the elected officials on our client councils we look forward to working with Councillor Robinson to support her in her role,” Jeffrey A. Abrams and Janice Atwood-Petkovski of Principles Integrity, an independent firm performing the role of commissioner, said in an email.

Second Sanction

Robinson’s second sanctioning in October 2023 involved her telling a crowd at a meeting of the Durham District School Board on May 15, 2023, about three motions she planned to bring to council.

Outside the meeting, Robinson spoke to a crowd, sharing the wording of the proposed motions.

The motions included banning drag shows and Pride parades wherever children could be present, restricting flags raised in public spaces, and changing the universal changing room policy at the Chestnut Hill Developments Recreation Complex in Pickering. The existing policy allowed members to use gender-specific change rooms. Robinson said she wanted the policy to allow non-members to use gendered change rooms as well.

“Whereas both drag shows and Pride parades are adult live performances, and whereas children of all ages are being exposed to these adult live performances; and whereas to protect children and their childhood innocence from live adult performances, now therefore, be it resolved that the council of the corporation of the City of Pickering prohibit a a person from knowingly admitting a child to an adult live performance,” she read to the crowd.

At that time, complaints were brought from other councillors as well as a Durham District School Board trustee. The integrity commissioner launched an investigation into claims that Robinson’s conduct promoted “homophobia and transphobia.”

The report that was issued at that time said that Robinson had “promoted attitudes” that were homophobic and transphobic. It also said she “failed to protect the dignity of individuals” by bringing motions that violated Ontario’s Human Rights Code.

Robinson told The Epoch times the finding wasn’t correct.

“In the integrity Commissioner’s report, it said that I was against the flying of both the Pride flag and a trans flag, where I never once said those flags,” she said.

Regarding her motion to put an age restriction on drag shows, she said claims that she’s trying to remove support for certain groups are false.

“All I was doing was to put an age restriction limit on these particular events,” Robinson said.

Regarding her motion on the use of gender-specific change rooms, she said, “all it said was that every man, woman, boy, girl, should have the choice to either use a biological bathroom or use the universal change room that was inclusive of all genders and our families.”

First Sanction

In her first sanctioning in September 2023, the integrity commissioner’s report took issue with Robinson in a Facebook post naming three residents who had participated in a city committee meeting. The meeting was about Robinson’s application to have a shipping container on her property.

The social media post read: “Tonight It is with great sadness that I announce that this years Robinsons Charity Halloween Haunt and corn maze will have to be cancelled. A big Thank you to [redacted], [redacted], and [redacted] for your neighbourly kindness.”

The integrity commissioner said in the report that Robinson’s post “incites her supporters to attack these residents on social media.”

“Whether or not such attacks materialized, the fact that her post enabled and potentially fueled conflict merely because these individuals opposed her minor variance is irresponsible,” the integrity commissioner said.

Robinson argued that the wording of her post did not connect the individuals to the denial of her application.

“I do not even mention the variance decision, much less connect these three gentlemen to it,” she said during a council meeting on Sept. 25, 2023.

“No one knows whether any of these men actually want to complain, because for all we know, the complaints are people using the code of conduct to register objections to my political opinions in an effort to shut down my right of freedom of expression,” she said.

Council voted to suspend 30 days of pay for Robinson at that meeting.

The Canadian Press contributed to this report.