The Town Hall presented by Councillor Lisa Robinson was more self-serving than delivering a municipal service.
Lisa Robinson has been on the “outs” at the Pickering’s City Council almost from day 1. Early in her tenure as councillor, she made statements and held events with controversy written all over them. Flag raising, washroom designations, “slave” employment and others. Each of these had opposing emotional aspects to them, and Robinson often seemed to take the less popularly accepted side of the position. This eventually landed her in enough hot water that the City council and the Mayor heatedly opposed her, eventually looking for ways to mute her or, more extremely, to remove her from the council. Finally, they achieved arguable success when the Integrity Commissioner suspended her from Council for 90 days.
As the City of Pickering has limited or narrow ways to keep the public informed about municipal affairs, no local newspaper, no specific central depository of municipal information, Robinson had no way of explaining her positions to the public. Some might claim she did with newspapers like The Central and Druthers, though these have been arguably criticized as opinion vehicles rather than clearly news publishers. The City of Pickering publishes information on a website found at pickering.ca However, there are obvious problems there, one of which is the question of how many Pickering residents access the Internet.
Nevertheless, the point of this commentary is to comment on Town Hall.
Robinson decided a Town Hall could be a vehicle she could use to explain her position on various topics. Town Halls are not used for personal purposes, and the attendees were not expecting this one to be used this way. Perhaps this is why so many attendees voiced their loud disapproval during the Town Hall.
Robinson used this Town Hall as a personal tool, repeatedly explaining her controversial positions. As other means of disseminating information to the public are very narrow, if at all available, maybe Robinson should not be judged too harshly for her use of the Town Hall tool. It was a means for her to ‘tell her side of the story (stories).’
Perhaps it would have been proper and right for Robinson to clearly explain her intent in the introduction and opening of the meeting. That would have been a more justifiable and appropriate use of the Town Hall.
A comment about the attending crowd of about 60 people.
Many attending this town hall may have forgotten what they hopefully learned at home or in school, which is polite and proper behaviour as an audience member…listen intently but silently. The majority of this attending group gave in to a ‘mob mentality,’ shouting, yelling, laughing disruptively…acting like a rowdy mob. I found this behaviour shameful and embarrassing.
I have always looked at Pickering people in a particular way: polite, courteous, respectful and attentive to other people’s positions in discussions and debates. The majority of these attendees did not fit my preconception. Their behaviour transformed what was intended as an orderly informational meeting into pandemonium, a chaotic, disruptive mob. A Q&A period was announced at Robinson’s Town Hall. Some people weren’t listening. Let’s hope the next meeting will have better listening, and more people respectful of what is intended. The way these people acted was unacceptable in our City and in our society.
____________________________________ R. Szpin
