Integrity Commissioner calling for 90-day penalty for ‘lengthy’ list of violations for Pickering Councillor

The ongoing saga of controversial Pickering Councillor Lisa Robinson will once again be on the Council floor Monday when the City’s Integrity Commissioner will deliver a scathing report recommending Robinson be sanctioned 90 days without pay for a long list of Code of Conduct violations.

Robinson has been found in violation of the City’s Code of Conduct by the Integrity Commissioner on several occasions – her chaotic tenure has seen her pay docked for 30- and 60-day periods – and she has since been “actively soliciting” donations and funding from far-right sources.

Her latest transgressions, according to Jeff Abrams and Janice Atwood-Petkovski of Principles Integrity, stem from a “lengthy report” from Mayor Kevin Ashe on her behaviour and numerous public complaints from a paid editorial taken out by Robinson last February.

The report grouped the complaints into several categories:

• Continuing to publicly advance a platform which has already been found to be in breach of the Code
• Equating PFLAG with groups engaging in undesirable, illegal and/or immoral
  acts
• Publicly denouncing and attacking Black History Month
• Equating loss of pay (for previous Code violations) with being a ‘modern day
  slave’
• Associating with a foreign nationalist politician known for racist and
  Islamophobic views
• Publicly attacking the mayor for attending church and providing misinformation regarding the absence of prayer at the opening of Council meetings
• Making various scandalous social media posts
• Impugning the Pickering CAO’s integrity and disparaging volunteer committee
  members
• Disparaging staff and councillors in public statements
• Crowdfunding for replacement of pay forfeited by Council-imposed sanctions
  for previous Code breaches

The report declared all the complaints alleged to be substantiated and constitute breaches of the Code. The recommended 90-day suspension of pay is the harshest allowed under the Municipal Act.

Council also approved a motion on March 25 to request that the Ontario Human Rights Commission hold a public inquest inquiry into strengthening the Municipal Act to allow for the dismissal of councillors for repeated Code of Conduct infractions.

Pickering Councillor Lisa Robinson after she claimed she was being muzzled by her colleagues

The current complaint delves into Robinson’s appearance on a far-right podcast where the host published the names, pictures, and personal phone numbers of councillors and labelled them as “pedophiles,” “nazis” and “fascists.”

Host Kevin J. Johnston, a notorious anti-vaxxer, wanted fugitive and disgraced mayoral candidate who owes millions of dollars in court-ordered damages for criminal harassment, also stated on the alt-right Rumble video content platform that Pickering’s elected officials “deserve a baseball bat to the face,” suggested that a “vicious and powerful dog” be let loose at council meetings and asked for “70s biker types with big biceps and scarred knuckles” to remove the councillors by force.

Despite the “clear findings” of the Integrity Commissioner and previous sanctions adopted by Council, Councillor Robinson has not been contrite but instead has become “further entrenched in her position,” the report stated, and has taken or created at least 16 opportunities to continue advancing a platform which has already been found to be in breach of the Code.

Robinson also engaged in numerous public communications, including
postings on Twitter and a paid editorial in the Oshawa Central Newspaper in which she challenged PFLAG’s participation in the annual Santa Claus parade, equating it to the participation of cannabis companies, gun clubs, adult stores and strippers.

Abrams and Atwood-Petkovski also found Robinson equated the existence as a member of the LGBTQ community with drug use, gun clubs, adult sexuality and exotic dancers, and suggests that participation in the parade is a means to “sell” or “promote” membership in the community. This fails to recognize sexuality and gender identity as an innate human characteristic, they wrote, and instead casts it as a “deviance from which children must be protected.”

“We find this to be a breach of the fundamental principle enumerated in the Code to protect and promote the well-being and best interests of the citizens of the City with the highest standards of integrity and ethical conduct,” they wrote, as well as a breach of the specific duty to treat members of the public with “respect and dignity and without abuse, bullying, or intimidation.”

Other public complaints against Robinson stem from a paid editorial in the Oshawa Central publication in which she took issue with Black History Month as
prioritizing one peoples’ history over another while claiming herself as a victim of prejudice and a “modern day slave.”

“Councillor Robinson also takes a particular interest in stating that ‘slave’ is not a word unique to the Black community and that she is entitled to use it. In this
context, it is racist to suggest her experience, which is fully legal, can be equated to slavery, which is both abhorrent and completely illegal.”

The report also cited Robinson’s “previous choice” to “attack LGBTQ interests” during PRIDE month.

Robinson’s attendance at an event for Christine Anderson, a German nationalist politician known for racist and Islamophobic views, was also noted in the Integrity Commissioner’s report.

She later issued an apology for her attendance before appearing at another event featuring Anderson, this time acting as a speaker.

Robinson has a framed photo of Anderson in her office, but claimed this does not mean she agrees with or endorses her message. “This is simply not credible,” the report declared. “It is not up to us to determine how councillors choose to decorate their offices, but in conjunction with the prior attendance at a Christine Anderson event, attending as a speaker shows alignment with this individual and her views, which are widely recognized as racist and Islamophobic.”

Robinson also reposted a story in hardcore alt-right propaganda publication Druthers that was “clear misinformation,” and included a response from the councillor in which she acknowledged that “not all the information in the article was true” but sharing the article did not constitute her endorsement of it.

“This is a reckless, irresponsible, and unacceptable response from a public figure, particularly when the correct or incorrect nature of the information shared is within her personal knowledge because it is actually about her.”

Unlike legislation for school trustees, Robinson cannot be banned from attending council meetings during her 90-day monetary penalty, should the penalty be imposed Monday.

“If there were legislative authority we would recommend the suspension of the Councillor from attending meetings for a period of 90 days,” the report declared.

“Her steadfast refusal to recognize any of her conduct as contraventions of the Code or to acknowledge the hurt and harm she inflicts on others through her
actions demonstrate an arrogant self-righteousness which we have rarely encountered in our municipal political leaders,” Abrams and Atwood-Petkovski said in their report.

Abrahams is expected to be in the Council chambers Monday to deliver the report and to field questions.

Pickering Councillor Lisa Robinson (red dress) and Mayor Kevin Ashe (with mic) during happier times