The City of Pickering Council meeting, Mar. 25, 2024, heated up from the first gavel.
The opening spiritual words fell on some deaf ears at this particular meeting.
The temperature-raising issue, not part of the declared agenda, was in relation to a procedural bylaw that restricted speakers addressing the council to delegations who had submitted requests as delegates and had received approval. Councillor Lisa Robinson questioned the acceptability of the item as being undemocratic, and restrictive of free speech. The verbal exchange that ensued became increasingly heated as Robinson was noted as being out of order as the question was not part of the agenda. The Chair became progressively more irritated with Robinson continue prodding at the possible violation of democratic principles.
The issue was not clearly resolved. However, a motion to eliminate the “Question Period” to make council meetings more efficient was passed, 6-1. Additionally, a second motion was also passed to disallow the use of photo or image recording devices at all future meetings.
Let the meeting begin
The delegations part of the meeting had more than a dozen delegations on the agenda, almost unanimously dealing with Councillor Robinson’s op-ed piece that has been labelled as being anti Black History Month. Chair Ashe should be commended for maintaining order and adhering steadfastly to the agenda.
The majority of the delegates who spoke in regard to the Robinson piece were in clear support of the Councillor. Though one delegation had to be reminded most vigorously that delegates were allowed 5 minutes to address the council, most delegates accepted the limitation.
Their presentations in support of Robinson varied a lot in bases. Some presented the historical perspective of persecuted factions ages ago across the world. Others presented the argument that Robinson’s rights to free speech were being violated. Others dealt with her chastisement and council duties suspension as an example of bullying. The bullying aspect was repeated several times. Others painted Robinson as a luminary trying to defend women’s rights and advance that cause.
One delegate specifically underlined that Robinson was defending the principles of diversity, equality and inclusion though closer examination of her statement begs the question that she says anything actually racist or derogatory. That still seems to be an ongoing debate.
Curiously, the Oshawa Durham Central Newspaper’s delegate, editor Joe Ingino, was a ‘no-show’ at the council meeting though he was designated as a delegate. The Robinson article appeared in the Mar 26th edition of the newspaper. It can be accessed by clicking –> “Slow Death of Democracy“
Not all delegates were supportive of Robinson’s position. She was labelled as a ‘rogue’ councillor who should resign from council. Additionally, criticism was aimed at the councillors in general for failing to research the proper ways of dealing with Robinson and for their ‘poor response’ to her logic.
One of the last delegates called for the Human Rights Commission of Ontario to step in and resolve this dispute. The goal suggested was that the HRC remove Robinson from office based on racist and bigotry grounds.
There was a small number of delegations that dealt with more localized matters such as Pickering cultural endeavours and the demolition of a possibly Heritage legacy property in the city.
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No more business was recorded by this reporter after this point.
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See Glenn Hendry report –> inDurham
For an EDITORIAL commentary relating to this council meeting and the Lisa Robinson issue, click –> EDITORIAL
