Pickering councillor spoke on 'extremist' podcast, council says

The mayor of Pickering and several city council members want the province to legislate stricter sanctions for the conduct of municipal officials after a councillor appeared on a controversial podcast where the host labelled her colleagues pedophiles, Nazis and fascists.

Coun. Lisa Robinson was a guest on a July 30 episode of "Live with Kevin J. Johnston" – a podcast hosted by Johnston, who has repeatedly displayed racist behaviour in recent years and previously pleaded guilty to a hate crime in Ontario in connection with anti-Muslim posts he shared online.

In a statement issued this week, Pickering's mayor and councillors called Johnston an "extremist" podcaster, saying the episode attacked the 2SLGBTQ+ community and vilified the Black Lives Matter movement.

Mayor Kevin Ashe said Robinson's participation was both irresponsible and unethical. He said it's the final straw in an escalating pattern of behaviour she has displayed this year.

"It's wholly and grossly inappropriate behaviour, which should end now," he said. 

During the podcast, Johnston repeatedly flashed photos of the mayor and other councillors alongside their contact information, next to a rainbow flag and a heading reading: "Pickering pedophile profile." He also mocked their physical appearances in great detail. 

At one point, Johnston suggested a violent dog be let loose on city council, alongside a claim that "70s biker types with the big biceps … [and] knuckles that had scar-tissue" should remove the mayor and city councillors by force.

Robinson did not join in on these comments, but continued speaking with Johnston without countering his remarks. On a video recording, she can often be seen smiling, laughing and nodding as Johnston speaks.

"I don't need to sit there and critique somebody else's opinion," Robinson told CBC Toronto in an interview.

Robinson went on to say she does not condone what Johnston said in a "hateful manner" — and said that her colleagues have a history of making "vicious attacks" on their opponents — something the councillors deny.

"All the councillors are getting a taste of their own medicine," she said. "Somebody's actually calling them out." 

That "somebody" has a history of criminal convictions and civil judgments that have gone against him.

In 2019, Johnston was ordered by a judge to pay $2.5 million against a restaurant chain owner for what the judge described as "a loathsome example of hate speech at its worst." 

He also pleaded guilty to criminal harassment of an Alberta Health Services inspector in July 2021. Two months later, he pleaded guilty to a hate crime in Ontario.