Latest news with #RickChiarelli
Ottawa Citizen
6 days ago
- Politics
- Ottawa Citizen
Provincial bill to kick out misbehaving councillors a good, but flawed start
Experts, Ontario city councillors and a former employee of disgraced ex-councillor Rick Chiarelli told Members of Provincial Parliament on Thursday that Bill 9 is 'long overdue,' but still has its flaws. Article content If passed, Bill 9 would give Ontario municipalities a standard code of conduct with the power to remove council members from office for serious violations. To remove a member, a recommendation from a municipal integrity commissioner, approval from an Ontario integrity commissioner and a unanimous vote by the rest of council would be necessary. Article content Article content Article content This bill comes three years after former Ottawa Coun. Rick Chiarelli refused to resign and was docked a maximum penalty of 450 days of pay for various code of conduct violations. The city's integrity commissioner issued three reports between 2020 and 2022 that condemned Chiarelli's behaviour toward women who were on his staff or had applied to work for him. Article content Article content The Standing Committee on Heritage, Infrastructure and Cultural Policy met at the Sheraton Hotel in Ottawa from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. on July 17 for public consultations on the bill. Article content Stephanie Dobbs, a former employee of Chiarelli and complainant against him, told the committee that she never saw justice or accountability. Article content After telling the committee to not take her criticism of Bill 9 as a lack of gratitude, Dobbs called it 'ludicrous' to let the decision to remove a member from office rest in the hands of other council members. Article content Article content 'As the legislation currently stands, I'm doubtful of the ability to enact change,' Dobbs said. Article content She added that putting the decision in council's hands turns the situation into a 'political spectacle,' which she later told the Citizen is her biggest concern about the proposed law. Article content Article content Throughout the public consultation, speakers like Coun. Lisa Deacon from the Township of Russell, Robin Jones with the Association of Municipalities of Ontario, and University of Ottawa emeritus professor Barry Wellar all called for the voting requirement to be changed to a two-thirds supermajority. Article content Many speakers, including Dobbs, think the decision to remove a council member should be a matter decided by the courts. Article content 'My concern is (the committee) dismissing the many voices that have been really pushing today,' Dobbs told the Citizen. 'If they choose not to go with amendments and to make this improvement, they'll be met with a lot of criticism and a lot of unhappy constituents.'
CBC
6 days ago
- Politics
- CBC
Hearings are being held in Ottawa on a provincial bill to oust city councillors who commit serious misconduct
The hearings hold particular significance in this city as the proposed legislation was partly inspired by complaints of sexual harassment against former councillor Rick Chiarelli.
CBC
6 days ago
- Politics
- CBC
Bill 9 'nearly impossible' to implement, Rick Chiarelli's accuser tells committee
Social Sharing A provincial bill drafted in response to a sexual harassment scandal in Ottawa would not have protected the victims involved, one of former city councillor Rick Chiarelli's accusers has told a committee. The Standing Committee on Heritage, Infrastructure and Cultural Policy held consultations over Bill 9 on Thursday in Ottawa, where a series of investigations in 2020 found that Chiarelli sexually harassed multiple female staffers over several years. Stephanie Dobbs, who made public sexual harassment complaints against Chiarelli, told the committee that the bill in its current form would not have protected her. "I am doubtful of its ability to provide meaningful change," she said. 'Another broken process cloaked in good intentions' Bill 9 aims to standardize codes of conduct across Ontario municipalities, giving them the power to remove and disqualify from office members who are found to be in serious violation. Under the proposed rules, removal could only occur following a recommendation from a municipal integrity commissioner, an approval from an Ontario integrity commissioner, and a unanimous vote by the rest of council. Requiring a unanimous vote would be too onerous, Dobbs said. "My former employer had a fascination with obtaining leverage over his fellow council colleagues," she said. "At a threshold of 100 per cent, all it would have taken is one compromised colleague out of 23 to not vote by stepping away, and he would have walked away with zero consequences. "Having the final decision return to be voted on at a council is frankly ludicrous." Nancy Cairns, who also worked for Chiarelli, agreed, arguing that the bill "risks becoming another broken process cloaked in good intentions." The proposed process for removing councillors would be "nearly impossible to use," she said. "The very council members who work alongside the person accused of misconduct, who may be political allies or fear retaliation, must all vote to remove them," she told the committee. Instead of a unanimous vote, she proposed a "non-political legal path to removal." "Many of these cases end up at judicial review anyway," Cairns said. "What's written in this bill is redundant, exhausting, and tells survivors the road ahead just isn't worth it." 'A procedural shield' Joanne Chianello, a former journalist who broke stories of Chiarelli's misconduct for CBC, argued that "council is not the right body to make this kind of decision." She continued: "What's proposed here isn't a path to justice, it's a procedural shield, one that risks protecting even the worst offenders so long as they have a single ally on council." Other speakers including Lisa Deacon, a member of Leadership féminin Prescott-Russell, proposed that a two-thirds majority of council ought to be sufficient for dismissal. Robin Jones, president of the Association of Municipalities of Ontario, submitted that her organization would prefer that the power of removal rests with an independent judge. 'Preserving democratic accountability' As sponsor of the bill, Minister of Municipal Affairs and Housing Rob Flack previously defended the requirement for a unanimous vote. "The process outlined balances the need for external influence while preserving democratic accountability at the local level," he said on July 3, noting that only members of council not subject to complaint, not on approved absences and not in conflict of interest would be permitted to vote. Not all of the speakers supported the aim of the bill. "We have elections to decide who represents us and it's been like that for a very long time, said Ryan Linkletter, who opposed the bill's mechanism to remove officials. "If a politician is unpopular and the constituents think they are not serving them, they won't be elected back in." Chiarelli, who was never criminally charged, denied accusations against him. His pay was docked for 540 days, the maximum penalty, following three damning integrity commissioner reports against him.
CBC
6 days ago
- Politics
- CBC
Hearings on bill to oust misbehaving councillors arrive in Ottawa
Social Sharing When a series of internal investigations found former Ottawa city councillor Rick Chiarelli had sexually harassed multiple female staffers over several years back in 2020, it sparked public outrage and demands for accountability. At the time, council imposed the harshest penalty available — docking Chiarelli's pay for 90 days times six, once for each complainant who came forward in three separate reports. That cost Chiarelli a little over $100,000, but he held onto his council seat until the end of his term in 2022. That was a difficult thing to explain to constituents, according to Kitchissippi Coun. Jeff Leiper. "I don't think residents really ever understood why [we] couldn't sanction such an egregious violation by kicking that councillor off of council," he said. "It's just not a power that city council has." But that could soon change. Thanks to years of advocacy, private members' bills, and other calls to update municipal codes of conducts and impose harsher penalties on those who violate them, the province is now proposing new legislation. Bill 9 would create a standard code of conduct for all municipalities, giving them the power to remove and disqualify from office members who are found to be in serious violation. Under the proposed rules, three things would need to happen first: a recommendation from a municipal integrity commissioner, an approval from an Ontario integrity commissioner, and a unanimous vote by the rest of council. Former staffer to address committee Several Ottawa residents are expected to speak before the Standing Committee on Heritage, Infrastructure and Cultural Policy when it visits the city on Thursday as part of the public hearings on the bill. Among them is Stephanie Dobbs, a former employee of Chiarelli's and one of the main complainants against him. "I want to bring back the human aspect to this," Dobbs told CBC. "It's very difficult in policy proceedings to remember the impact this has on real people." Dobbs said she intends to speak about what she went through and the long-term impact it has had on her. She said she's grateful for the bill, although she believes it contains one serious flaw: the requirement that councillors unanimously vote for removal. "This threshold of 100 per cent is absolutely ridiculous and unrealistic," she said. MPP hoping for amendments MPP Stephen Blais shares that concern. Blais served on Ottawa city council with Chiarelli before making the jump to provincial politics. He has introduced three different bills aimed at creating a process to remove an elected official from office for egregious workplace violence or harassment, but all three were voted down. "We've seen here in Ottawa and other cities that when controversial items come up, it's very easy to get up and just be away from the table," he said of the unanimity requirement. "It would be very easy for that vote simply not to happen because someone was absent." Blais argues the decision to remove a councillor should ultimately be up to the courts. He and other opposition MPPs intend to propose amendments to Bill 9 once it passes to the next stage, but he isn't sure their suggestions will be well received. "The current government has a distaste for the courts," he said. When then Municipal Affairs minister Paul Calandra introduced the bill last December, he defended the "very high bar" it sets. "Ultimately, the people will decide in an election. I wanted to have a mechanism [for removal], though. I thought it was very important," he said. Thursday's hearing will take place at the Sheraton Hotel on Albert Street.
Ottawa Citizen
08-07-2025
- Politics
- Ottawa Citizen
Chianello: How to fire bad councillors — Ontario isn't getting it right
When I first reported on allegations against then-Ottawa city councillor Rick Chiarelli in 2019, the reaction from readers was swift and visceral. Article content Yes, people were appalled by the stories: disturbing accounts from women who said they were told by Chiarelli not to wear bras to public events, were given flimsy clothing to wear, and taken to bars to 'recruit' men as volunteers. But what stunned people even more was the realization that nothing could be done to remove Chiarelli from office. Not by the province. Not by the public. Not even after multiple damning reports from both the city's former and current integrity commissioners. Article content Article content Article content And that disbelief never really went away. Article content Over the past five years, I've heard from dozens of people — victims, staffers, elected officials, voters — all asking the same question: how is it possible that an elected official can be found to have harassed or harmed others in the workplace, and still keep their job? Article content Now, the province has finally responded — in theory. Article content This spring, Ontario's Progressive Conservative government introduced Bill 9, the Municipal Accountability Act, 2025, which passed second reading last month. On paper, it's the government's answer to calls from multiple quarters for a legal mechanism to remove municipal councillors from office for egregious misconduct. Article content Bill 9 does offer a few welcome changes. It mandates training for councillors on their codes of conduct. It gives the province authority to impose those codes if municipalities fall short. And it adds oversight to ensure municipal integrity commissioners don't have conflicts of interest — a needed step, especially after revelations by CBC Ottawa that some commissioners were also serving as their municipality's lawyer, a conflict the Ontario ombudsman rightly flagged as problematic. Article content Article content But on the core issue — the ability to remove a council member who has seriously violated the code of conduct — Bill 9 falls short. In fact, it sets up a process so convoluted and politicized that it's hard to imagine it ever being used successfully. Article content Article content Here's how it would work. Article content If a local integrity commissioner finds that a councillor's misconduct caused harm to someone's health, safety or well-being — and potentially if the behaviour was repeated — they can recommend removal from office. That recommendation then goes to Ontario's Integrity Commissioner, who launches a second full inquiry. Article content If the provincial commissioner agrees the councillor should be removed, they make a recommendation. But that recommendation doesn't trigger removal. Article content Instead, it's sent back to the councillor's own colleagues — their fellow council members — who must vote unanimously to remove them from office within 30 days. And every single councillor must be present for the vote to count. If someone is sick, on vacation, or slinks off to the washroom, the vote fails. And if council doesn't hold a vote within that 30-day deadline, Bill 9 is silent on what happens next.
