An integrity commissioner has issued recommendations against Councillor Terina Shaw after they found she violated the City’s Code of Ethics bylaw.
It is recommended that Shaw is sanctioned and made to undergo training on communicating in a “respectful and courteous manner.”
Councillor Andrew Stevens submitted an ethics complaint due to a January 19 video conference where Shaw made comments criticizing Councillor Shanon Zachidniak for the length of comments she was making during a question and answer period.
“Shannon, can you please leave your lecturing to a personal conversation instead of wasting my time,” Shaw wrote using the chat feature.
“Terina, can you please be respectful to your colleagues,” Zachidniak replied, according to the report.
Separate from Stevens’ complaint made on March 21, an ethics complaint against Shaw was also submitted back in July with 47 signatories calling for her removal about two instances earlier this year in which she allegedly made disrespectful comments about Indigenous people during the council.
City council much respond publicly to the integrity commissioner within 90 days and is set to do so at Wednesday’s City Council meeting.
Shaw did not deny that she made the comments in response to the investigation. She indicated that she did so because she felt Zachidniak’s comments were “often lengthy in nature” and not respectful of other participants’ time.
She also said that all meeting participants did not know that the chat was viewable.
Part of the recommendations will call for sanctions on Shaw and require her to ‘receive some training or education on how to communicate effectively in a respectful and courteous manner.”
“I questioned the respondent about how she could have gotten her concerns across in a different way; she could not think of an alternative way, which tells me that this method of communication is common for her and that she could benefit from some training,” the report said.
A sanction can be a reprimand, an apology to those impacted, educational training, the removal from Council Committees, or the dismissal from the position of chairperson of a Council committee.
