Ontario Councillor Given 60-day Pay Suspension Over Universal Change Room, Drag Storytime Motions

A gender neutral sign is posted outside a bathroom at Oval Park Grill in Durham, N.C., on May 11, 2016. Sara D. Davis/Getty Images

A city councillor in Pickering, Ontario, has been given a 60-day pay suspension for motions deemed “homophobic” and “transphobic” by the city’s integrity commissioner.

Council voted unanimously on the move on Oct. 23 following a presentation of an investigation into activities by councillor Lisa Robinson at a May 15 Durham District School Board meeting. Ms. Robinson told a crowd at the meeting about several motions she was intending to bring to council the following week.

According to council documents, the motions included banning drag shows and pride parades anywhere children could be present; restricting flags raised in public spaces to federal, provincial, and municipal flags as well as poppy and veterans flags; and changing the universal change room policy at the Chestnut Hill Developments Recreation Complex, which currently only allows members to use the gender-specific (male-only and female-only) change rooms, to allow non-members to do so as well.

The report by city integrity commissioner Janice Atwood-Petkovski recommended that council sanction Ms. Robinson with a 60-day pay suspension—a move that would cause significant financial distress, the councillor told The Epoch Times.

“I am a single parent. I can’t afford to pay my mortgage. I can’t afford to put food on my table for my child.”

The decision comes on the heels of a previous 30-day pay suspension that Ms. Robinson says required her to borrow money to pay her mortgage.

She also said her motions were not aimed at the LGBTQ+ community. She said she was simply trying to put an age restriction on events such as drag storytimes.

“The only thing I was trying to do is bring in age appropriateness to those events,” she said.

She also noted that the city’s flag raisings policy already states that requests may not be approved for “politically based parties, organizations, or individuals” or “matters of political controversy or ideological beliefs.”

She said her motion regarding flags was based on one passed by the Township of Norwich, Ontario, in April.

“These discussions are happening everywhere and yet my own council decided they were going to try and get to me and try to silence my voice and started calling me transphobic and homophobic for trying to bring these motions forward that are being discussed at all levels of government,” she said.

Pickering’s other integrity commissioner, Jeffrey Abrams, told The Epoch Times he could not discuss the matter due to a statute that “requires that our investigations are confidential.”

“We can say that we abide by the tenets of procedural fairness in every investigation which means that the members of council involved, and other persons integral to the matter, have the information necessary to respond to the allegations that are raised, ample opportunity to prepare a response, ample opportunity to respond to our draft findings, and the ability to speak to the matter in Council,” he said in an email.

Integrity Investigation

The integrity commissioners investigation was launched after complaints from other councillors, including Maurice Brenner, Linda Cook, and Mara Nagy as well as Durham District School Board trustee Emma Cunningham and “other members of the community,” the report said.

“The complainants assert that the councillor’s conduct and behaviour deliberately and intentionally invited a protest at Pickering council chambers and promoted homophobia and transphobia in pursuit of an agenda which is contrary to the Canadian Human Rights Code, the Ontario Human Rights Code, and in contravention of Pickering’s and council’s code of conduct,” Ms. Atwood-Petkovski told council.

“We find that the councillor has promoted attitudes, which are homophobic and transphobic, failed to recognize the diversity of the community, failed to protect the dignity of individuals, and attempted to bring forward motions which would not, in our view, withstand scrutiny under Ontario’s Human Rights Code,” council documents said.

Judicial Removal of Councillor

At the meeting, council also passed a motion that would permit sitting councillors to be removed from their position by a member of the courts. Ms. Robinson was the only councillor present who voted no for the motion.

The motion, called Legislative Amendments to Improve Municipal Codes of Conduct and Enforcement, is a bid to “set expectations of council member behaviour,” according to the council documents.

It allows “municipalities to apply to a member of the judiciary to remove a sitting member” if recommended by the integrity commissioner.

Several delegates spoke to council against the motion. Residents said the motion silenced their voices by allowing an official who was elected by the people to be removed from council.