Penalties for municipal misbehaviour 'toothless,' experts say as calls for change persist
CBC
When Toronto councillors debate John Tory's violations of the city's code of conduct next week, experts say they'll face the same problem their counterparts across Ontario face when dealing with similar violations: enforcement is "toothless."
Tory resigned in February after revealing he had an "inappropriate relationship" with a former staff member. This week, Toronto's integrity commissioner found the former mayor violated two sections of the city's code of conduct because of the affair.
But the watchdog recommended no punishment for Tory, in part because he is no longer in office.
Even if Tory were still on council and his colleagues wanted to sanction him, municipal lawyer John Mascarin says there's little they could do.
"The whole system is a little bit toothless," Mascarin said. "Even if Mr. Tory had remained in office as the mayor, what would have been the penalty? A reprimand or a suspension of pay for up to 90 days."
Mascarin says its a problem municipal councils across Ontario have grappled with for years. From sexual harassment and discrimination to ethics breaches stemming from abuses of influence, he says councils can do little more than symbolically call out bad behaviour and hit their misbehaving colleagues in the wallet.
"The city's hands are pretty much tied, all municipalities in Ontario's hands are tied, until the provincial government does something about it," he said.
Politicians around Ontario have attempted to address the problem in recent years.
At Queen's Park, Liberal MPP Stephen Blais has introduced three private members bills trying to give municipal integrity commissioners enhanced powers. Those bills would have allowed the watchdogs to refer the most egregious code of conduct violations to court. A judge would then determine if a politician should be removed from office and barred from running in subsequent elections.
Each time, the bills have stalled in Queen's Park's legislative process or been rejected by Premier Doug Ford's government.
"Municipal elected officials in Ontario really aren't subjected to the same kind of workplace standards around harassment and violence," said Blais, who once served as an Ottawa city councillor.
"Any other employee would … face serious consequences for this kind of behaviour."
Blais's motivation for the bills followed multiple investigations by Ottawa Integrity Commissioner Karen Shepherd into the conduct of Rick Chiarelli, who was, at that time, a city councillor.
Shepherd found allegations of sexual harassment from women who worked for the councillor credible and said that Chiarelli contravened the city's code of conduct.
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