TORONTO – Today was the last council meeting for Toronto. Not to be petty, but unless you were tracking the latest wokist demands, or the musings of its high priest Mayor Tory, you might have thought that the Council had done nothing to merit acknowledgement for spending upwards of upwards of the many Billions of dollars of your hard-earned money.
Not so in Brampton, where five (5) recalcitrant Councillors declined to attend a meeting called by Mayor Brown to “normalize” City business. There had been no activity for a month after Councillors, Jeff Bowman, Gurpreet Dhillon, Pat Fortini, Martin Madeiros and Doug Whillans attempted a “coup d’état” when the Mayor was otherwise occupied with Conservative Party leadership issues.
Readers may recall that the Five, abetted by the complicity of now MPP elect, Charmaine Williams, pre-emptively passed a motion to replace the same Ms. Williams before the election took places. Last week, Superior Court Justice Doi found they contravened the Municipal Act when they moved, illegally, to replace another colleague before a vacancy occurred and without consulting the public. Justice Doi annulled their action.
Today, Tuesday, following a Monday replete with public interviews and announcements where Brown, explained his reasons for seeking re-election to the office, the Mayor attempted to reconvene Council. To no avail. Th Five are refusing to attend Council. There is consequently an absence of quorum.
In an official Press Release, Brown and his more co-operative Council colleagues (Harkirat Singh, Michael Palleschi, Rowena Santos and Paul Vicente) called on the Recalcitrant Five “to put aside their differences aside and return to Council to conduct and finish critical City business”.
The conciliatory tone seemed a positive gesture, the Mayor and his allies did not shy away from re emphasizing the damages that their colleagues had brought upon the Council, themselves and to the taxpayers. Addressing the public directly, the press release:
These councillors ignored expert advice from staff and ignored multiple warnings from Council colleagues. They are responsible for firing the City’s Integrity Commissioner and City Solicitor. We are unsure of the cost of those firings but know that their illegal motion has resulted in the loss of over $50,000 of taxpayer dollars.
Brown and his allies would seem to be on pretty solid ground They have “reconvened for Wednesday (tomorrow, ndr), to give the Recalcitrant yet another chance… “to conduct and finish critical City Business [warning that] …Now is not the time to vacation…{but] to get back to work and perform their duty, which they were sworn to do.”
Given Justice Doi’s findings, the Election Commissioner, and/or the Attorney General’s office or that of Cabinet colleague the Solicitor General need to get off their A***. There must be some consequences to illegality and unethical conduct. This Council’s members are behaving like the trustees in the Toronto and Halton school boards – people Columnist Rex Murphy derisively refers to as “emperors of woke”.
How or why any of those five qualify for the upcoming election, especially when they went against the legal advice of the City Solicitor, whom they fired on the spot for telling them to follow the legal process.
