Regina’s mayor is standing by comments she made about two councillors after she received a letter from residents challenging her words.

A letter signed by over 100 women and non-binary residents of the City was sent to Mayor Sandra Masters, challenging her recent claims of sexism and intimidation against a pair of councillors.

“My opinion of that hasn’t changed; I don’t agree with the lawsuit still,” Masters said.

“I appreciate the opinion; I respect the opinion. I respect the fact that they get to have that opinion, but I also have to respect the fact that I have the opinion,” she continued.

Masters has accused the councillors of harassment and that the lawsuit itself was sexist and was a form of intimidation against the City Manager, Nikki Anderson.

The mayor’s response and the letter follow the lawsuit in which Coun. Dan LeBlanc represented Coun. Andrew Stevens and another community member against Anderson in an attempt to compel her office to include a line item describing the cost of ending houselessness in the 2023 city budget.

“The notion that the deep concerns around homelessness are mutually exclusive of the treatment of councils’ employment. I don’t agree with that notion that somehow they are mutually exclusive,” Masters said.

The letter featured many with direct experience with homelessness or work in supportive roles as social workers, counsellors, nurses, physicians, and faith leaders across the City who disagreed with Masters’s claims of sexism.

“It is not sexist to expect that our elected officials remain accountable to their commitments. It is not sexist to expect that unelected city officials follow the direction of elected representatives when making life-and-death decisions that deeply affect vulnerable residents of our City. It is not sexist to demand that wards most affected by issues of houselessness and policing have representatives at the tables where decisions on those issues are made,” the letter stated.

“Ending houselessness is feminist. Sheltering women in positions of power from discomfort at the expense of women for whom the consequences of their inaction are lethal is not,” the letter continued. “What Mayor Masters and City Manager Niki Anderson experienced was the rightful outrage of core residents who continue to be sidelined and ignored in decision-making.”