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In March, Council filed a complaint against me, as the Chair of the @AdvisoryLgbtq, through the City's Integrity Commissioner. Council’s complaint alleges I was critical and inappropriate when communicating the Committee's public decisions about the 2019 Pride flag raising.
For the past 6 months I haven’t been able to talk about this publicly because the process has been confidential. Now, a final report, including a recommendation that I be removed from my position as Chair, has been filed and is on the public Council agenda for September 30.
The IC is meant to investigate complaints against Council. To my knowledge, this is the first time Council has used the IC to investigate a volunteer. The investigation took place during a pandemic. It was fast-tracked and prioritized over 14 complaints against Council.
I believe this is an abuse of the IC process and this investigation of a volunteer sends a chilling message to all members of oppressed communities in Hamilton, especially to those on other Advisory Committees.
Rather than reaching out, Council has doubled down. In its simplest form, this is an attempt to silence the voices of many Hamiltonians who are so often unheard by their institutions and their elected officials, especially those who dare to provide critical feedback.
Despite the remedies proposed in the Integrity Commissioner’s final report to Council, I will not resign from the LGBTQ Advisory Committee. As a member of the queer community, I refuse to have my voice silenced by Council.
A complete version of the Integrity Commissioner’s public report can be found at https://pub-hamilton.escribemeetings.com/filestream.ashx?DocumentId=240014.
