Two members of the Douro-Dummer municipal council were under investigation by the Integrity Commissioner and the results of these investigations were made public in the Douro-Dummer and Peterborough County council agendas for this week’s meetings.
The municipal act states that municipalities establish codes of conduct for Council and local boards. In August of 2020 the township of Douro-Dummer passed a bylaw appointing Cunningham Swan Carty Little & Bonham LLP as the Township’s Integrity Commissioner. Mr. Tony Fleming is the member of Cunningham Swan who provides the service of the Integrity Commissioner for the municipality.
The complaint levied at both councillors were under the following provisions of the Code of Conduct:
11. No Member shall harass any other member, any staff, or any member of the public.
“Harassment” or “harass” involves engaging in a course of behavior, comment or conduct, whether it occurs inside or outside the work environment, that is or ought reasonably to be known to be unwelcome. It includes but is not limited to any behavior, conduct or comment by a Member that is directed at or is offensive to another person:
i. On the grounds of race, ancestry, place of origin, colour, ethnic origin, citizenship, creed, sex, age, handicap, sexual orientation, marital status, or family status, as well as any other grounds under the provisions of the Human Rights Code; or
ii. Which is reasonably perceived by the recipient as an intention to bully, embarrass, intimidate or ridicule the recipient.
The elected officials were Douro Ward Councillor, Ray Johnston who’s complaint was filed with the municipality of Douro-Dummer and Deputy Mayor Harold Nelson who’s complaint was filed with the county of Peterborough.
In the case of Johnston the complaint alleged that the Member made discriminatory comments during a Diversity, Equity and Inclusion training session on September 20, 2023.The Complaint alleged the following:
Mr. Johnston was very vocal during the session and made several discriminatory comments related to immigrants and immigration.Mr. Johnston commented on Canada’s secondary school system and stated that immigrants and international students are coming over and taking university and college education away from our kids by filling the schools. Mr. Johnston commented that “these people” are taking “our” positions in schools, jobs and sports.
According to the report the integrity commissioner uses a standard of proof called The Balance of Probabilities, which applies to integrity commissioners across Ontario. The definition supplied in the report to council reads that the standard requires the trier of fact to “scrutinize the relevant evidence with care to determine whether it is more likely than not that the alleged event occurred.
In the case of councillor Johnston the commissioner determined that the charge of harassment leveled against him by the instructor at the training session did not meet the bar.
Flemming said in his report that while the commentary made by Johnston was not appropriate in the context, it did not rise to the level required to meet the definition of harassment. Harassment requires that the commentary or conduct be “directed at or offensive to another person.”
The complaint against Johnston was dismissed
Councillor at Large Tom Watt commented on Johnston’s situation at the Tuesday evening council meeting.
Watt said “I appreciate the fact that this (the complaint) did happen, but I was also surprised that it happened because I was at that meeting and in my mind, I just want to speak for myself here, things are brought up in that meeting so they can be addressed, how to deal with it, how to not to respond and things like that...I was kind of surprised that it was taken that way.”
The second complaint was filed against Nelson on the county level. This investigation was also carried out by Tony Fleming of Cunningham Swan.
The complaint against Nelson was also filed by the Peterborough County employee who was the instructor at the Diversity, Equity and Inclusion training session held on September 20, 2023.
The section of the code of conduct Nelson is charged with breaching is harassment.
The report states that during the training session, during a discussion about culture, Mr. Nelson asked/commented “what if he’s not willing to accept everyone’s culture.” When asked for clarification he said, “he’s not open to accepting all cultures because he rejects some cultures and is therefore not willing to invite everyone to have a say in shaping our culture.” Mr. Nelson stated as an example he “is not willing to accept Sharia Law as part of Canadian culture and Canadian law(s) because it is oppressive and goes against the values that our forefathers fought for.” He admitted he may not know a lot about Sharia Law but that from what he does know it is “oppressive”, especially towards women. At some point, Mr. Nelson was asked whether he would reject Sharia Law even if it was only to apply to the people for whom it is valuable or meaningful. He said “yes because it goes against our Canadian values”. When asked whether his way of looking at these values is the only way that is acceptable he responded “yes”.
Mr. Nelson also expressed frustration with Canada’s current immigration plans, how the government is allowing hundreds of thousands of immigrants into Canada every year. He focused his frustrations on Muslims and immigrants because according to him they do not represent nor abide by Canadian values. He noted “these people’ don’t come from democratic countries and can’t just come here and impose their laws or their values and religion on us.” The discussion continued and Mr. Nelson blamed immigrants for Canada’s national housing crisis amongst other issues. The instructor intervened but Mr. Nelson continued to express his frustrations about immigrants.
At some point, the instructor stated “I’m here and I’m not going anywhere, so what do you suggest we do, where do you suggest we go?”
Mr. Nelson did not respond.
Mr. Nelson, during this discussion, described immigrants as “those” people and that “new cultures” were going to change “Canadian values and ruin what we Canadians believe in and value.” He referred during the discussion that immigrants were “ruining” Canadian values and privileges.
Evidence presented by Nelson disputed that some of the above-noted exchange occurred as described. Nelson agreed that he made some of the statements but also denied making some of the statements or stated that certain statements were “taken out of context” or “not what he meant.”
The commissioner determined in his report that the comments made by Nelson at the training session did rise to the level of harassment as outlined in the code of conduct.
Being found in contravention of the code, Nelson could face some kind of reprimand and be forced to make a public apology.
The county council meeting takes place after the Herald press time, therefore we will report on the decision in the next issue.
