Council meetings in Pickering going virtual in 2025 to “protect” council, staff and residents

Pickering Council is going virtual in 2025 to “protect the safety, security and well-being of council, staff, and residents” after two years of violence, threats and intimidation from alt-right supporters of controversial councillor Lisa Robinson.

Mayor Kevin Ashe released a video Monday afternoon explaining the decision to bar the public from attending future meetings, saying the city needs to take measures to “enhance the personal safety for all.”

“Over the past two years the City of Pickering has witnessed a growing infiltration of alt-right individuals, ideologies and influences that has created an atmosphere of uncertainty over our council, our staff, our residents and indeed the broader community,” he said at the outset of the video, which provided context for the decision and also came with a warning label of “threats and extreme violence.”

“Viewer discretion is strongly advised.”

The video provided a playback of Robinson’s first term in office, including an appearance with German far-right politician Christine Anderson and on a podcast with notorious fugitive Kevin Johnstone, with the host calling Ashe and his councillors “pedophiles, nazis and fascists” and suggesting “70s biker gangs” be brought in to “remove these guys by force.”

Robinson, who smiled and nodded during Johnstone’s tirade and later tried to distance herself from the comments, continued to post “increasingly erratic and angry” messages on social media, including a cryptic poem referencing Guy Fawkes, an Englishman who tried to blow up the British Parliament in 1605.

She said her rhyme “serves as a reminder’ of the “value of violence against corruption.”

Pickering Councillor Lisa Robinson

Robinson, who allowed far-right groups to organize (and run security) for her Town Hall meeting in November (held at a community centre named for Ashe’s father), also had her invitation to the Remembrance Day Veterans Dinner revoked by the local Legion.

But while the councillor’s conduct has led to multiple sanctions from council and the city’s Integrity Commissioner (she has seen her pay docked four times, including the last two for 90-day periods) it is the behaviour of her supporters which has led to the decision to hold council meetings virtually going forward.

Her followers have regularly left a series of threats, text, voice mails and e-mails for council and staff to peruse, have distributed flyers in the community filled with conspiracy theories and have made a practice of disrupting council meetings to voice their displeasure with their perceived unfair treatment of Robinson.

Her online supporters became “increasingly angry” and prone to suggesting “violent action,” including this from ‘Larry’- “They need to be taken down” and from ‘Jim’ – “Where’s Rambo when you need him?”

The video noted that communities across North America have been infiltrated by far-right groups trying to “control, sow dissent and intimidate” residents “in order to influence municipal government.”

Ashe the decision to go virtual needed to be done.

“This decision was not taken lightly but the threats to our safety demand action,” he said. “We will not expose ourselves to these external actors nor allow the to disrupt our work any longer.”

VIDEO: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rouu5miQQ2A

Pickering Mayor Kevin Ashe