‘This is behaviour that’s been threatening’: Sarnia Mayor calls for more power to remove troublesome councillors

Mayor Mike Bradley pens a letter to the premier asking for changes in the way municipalities can remove councillors, CTV London's Bryan Bicknell explains.

What if local councils could remove politicians who behave badly, without having to go to the polls?

Some voters CTV News spoke with believe they should be able to do just that.

“Politicians have kind of a moral duty of care to behave in honourable and appropriate ways,” said Londoner Sandy Morton.

“I’d be called to HR immediately and probably penalized or fired for [misconduct],” said Londoner Kevin Lynn.

Sarnia Mayor Mike Bradley has written to premier Doug Ford, asking that municipal councils be given more teeth in Bill 9, the Municipal Accountability Act. The legislation would require unanimous council support to remove a fellow councillor for serious code of conduct violations.

“A two-thirds majority, or a simple majority of council, excluding the subject member, would provide a more reasonable, fair, and workable standard,” said Bradley in his correspondence.

Speaking to CTV News this week, Bradley suggested it’s a last resort for extreme cases.

“Do we, as municipal leaders want to see people removed from office just because they say something we don’t like? This is way beyond that. This is behaviour that’s been threatening in the council chamber, it’s been threatening online,” he explained.

The letter is in response to actions by Councillor Bill Dennis. In January of last year, the Sarnia councillor was banned from city hall, and from taking part in council meetings in person after an investigation found he breached harassment and violence policies.

Most recently, Dennis got into a heated online exchange with Indigenous groups, in which he was accused of offensive commentary.

His behaviour became the subject of a special council meeting this week, which he did not attend.

Councillor Adam Kilner spoke of the need for tighter rules governing the conduct of municipal councillors.

“It feels like it’s moving at a snail’s pace, when we are not the only municipality looking for standards for professional conduct that virtually every other workplace has,” said Kilner.

One expert in municipal governance says removing troublesome politicians from office comes down to the tricky question of enacting laws that could potentially overrule personal freedoms.

“You can have people on a municipal council who say things that really annoy their colleagues. And sometimes that could get into the realm of hate-speech, and should be sanctioned, in my view. But a lot of objectionable speech is the price we pay for having a democracy with different people having different views,” explained Andrew Sancton, a retired politics professor at Western University.

Bill 9 is expected to be passed before the next municipal election, which is scheduled to take place in October.