‘Self-righteous’ Pickering councillor docked 90 days pay for repeated Code of Conduct violations

Embattled Pickering Councillor Lisa Robinson was docked 90 days pay – the most allowed under the Municipal Act – at a raucous council meeting Monday after a “long list” of Code of Conduct violations.

Robinson has been found in violation of the City’s Code of Conduct on several occasions – her chaotic tenure has seen her pay docked for 30- and 60-day periods before Monday – and has shown no desire to change what has been described in a scathing report from the City’s Integrity Commissioner as “arrogant, self-righteous” behaviour.

She has also been “actively soliciting” donations and funding from far-right sources to recover her financial losses and played the victim card both on social media and during Monday’s Council meeting.

Robinson put the onus on her latest penalty on Mayor Kevin Ashe, calling it a “vindictive power play” and a “witch hunt,” resulting in a three-month loss of pay to a “single mother with no other source of income to provide for her family for speaking the truth.”

Unlike legislation for school trustees, Robinson cannot be banned from attending council meetings during her 90-day monetary penalty but Jeff Abrams and Janice Atwood-Petkovski of Principles Integrity made it clear in their report they would if they could.

“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.”

Robinson went on a long rant Monday and was cautioned and ruled out of order on numerous occasions before her colleagues voted to approve the 90-day penalty.

Councillor David Pickles called Robinson’s actions a “blight on the City of Pickering.”

Pickering Councillor Lisa Robinson

The report from the Integrity Commissioner broke down Robinson’s code of conduct violations into ten 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

Robinson said the penalty “undermines” her ability to serve the public and sets a “dangerous precedent” for how dissent is treated in the council chambers.

She also called the report flawed and “manipulative” and accused Ashe of “weaponizing” city staff to “manufacture a 75-page report against me, seeking to see what accusations might stick. This is nothing less than an abuse of power”

“I will not be silenced, and I will continue to fight against these baseless attacks on my character and my livelihood,” Robinson declared. “The people of Pickering deserve better than this orchestrated vendetta, and I will not rest until the truth is revealed and justice is served.”

The 90-day financial sanction was approved unanimously.