Pickering Councillors Lisa Robinson and Maurice Brenner and Mayor Kevin Ashe in higher days. Photograph Glenn Hendry
Embattled Pickering councillor Lisa Robinson mentioned council’s choice to go digital for his or her conferences in 2025 to “protect the safety, security and well-being of council, staff, and residents” is nothing greater than an “all-out attack” on her capacity to do her job for her constituents.
“They want to suppress the truth, manipulate the narrative and control the voices that challenge their power,” Robinson mentioned on one among a number of rambling tirades on her common YouTube video to her supporters, the place she referred to as out fellow councillor Maurice Brenner and Pickering CAO Marisa Carpino for his or her efforts to “suppress the truth.”
Robinson claimed Brenner was “actively working to silence me” by attempting to forestall her from utilizing her workplace at Metropolis Corridor to file her often combative podcasts, claiming she realized this by a Freedom of Data Request on redacted emails.
“It’s clear that Councillor Brenner is actively working to undermine me,” she mentioned, including that Brenner additionally tried to get her charged with a hate crime.
Robinson additionally singled out Carpino in her assault, saying the CAO threatened to cease her from utilizing her workplace or metropolis property for her movies, “if I don’t remain silent about the corruption and collusion that is happening at the City of Pickering.”
Robinson, who didn’t elaborate on the alleged corruption, referred to as it a “blatant abuse of authority.”
“The Pickering CAO’s attempt to extort me an elected official, is an insult to democracy and in my opinion, criminal,” she mentioned in a follow-up video launched New 12 months’s Day.
Pickering Councillor Lisa Robinson
Mayor Kevin Ashe launched a video Monday afternoon explaining the choice to bar the general public from attending future conferences, saying the town must take measures to “enhance the personal safety for all” after two years of violence, threats and intimidation from Robinson’s alt-right supporters.
“Over the past two years the City of Pickering has witnessed a growing infiltration of alt-right individuals, ideologies and influences that has created an atmosphere of uncertainty over our council, our staff, our residents and indeed the broader community,” he mentioned on the outset of the video, which offered context for the choice and in addition got here with a warning label of “threats and extreme violence.”
The video offered a playback of Robinson’s first time period in workplace, together with:
an look on a podcast with infamous fugitive Kevin Johnston, with the host calling Ashe and his councillors “pedophiles, nazis and fascists” and suggesting “70s biker gangs” be introduced in to “remove these guys by force” whereas Robinson smiled and nodded
a present of assist for German far-right politician Christine Anderson
a sequence of “increasingly erratic and angry” messages on social media, together with a cryptic poem referencing Man Fawkes, an Englishman who tried to explode the British Parliament in 1605, which she mentioned serves as a “reminder” of the “value of violence against corruption”
permitting far-right teams to prepare (and run safety) for her City Corridor assembly in November
the revoking of her invitation to the Remembrance Day Veterans Dinner hosted by the native Legion the identical month
However whereas the councillor’s conduct has led to a number of sanctions from council and the town’s Integrity Commissioner (she has seen her pay docked 4 instances, together with the final two for 90-day intervals) Ashe mentioned in his video deal with it’s the behaviour of her supporters which has led to the choice to carry council conferences nearly going ahead.
Her followers have frequently left a sequence of threats, textual content, voice mails and e-mails for council and workers to peruse, have distributed flyers locally full of conspiracy theories and have made a apply of disrupting council conferences to voice their displeasure with their perceived unfair remedy of Robinson.
Her on-line supporters grew to become “increasingly angry” and susceptible to suggesting “violent action,” corresponding to “They need to be taken down” (‘Larry’) and “Where’s Rambo when you need him?” (‘Jim’).
The video famous that communities throughout North America have been infiltrated by far-right teams attempting to “control, sow dissent and intimidate” residents “in order to influence municipal government.”
Ashe the choice to go digital wanted to be achieved.
“This decision was not taken lightly but the threats to our safety demand action,” he mentioned. “We will not expose ourselves to these external actors nor allow them to disrupt our work any longer.”
Robinson, nonetheless, noticed it as a private assault on her and a “direct insult” to the “peaceful protesters” who make up her assist group.
“This is a calculated effort by the City of Pickering’s administration and council to silence me, an outspoken representative who is determined to uncover corruption, collusion, and misconduct. This is a rallying cry for integrity, accountability, and the protection of democratic freedoms. I have now been locked out of accessing staff, using my office for meetings or recording videos, and hosting my city council meetings on city property! Why? because they do not approve of the content.”
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