Moot point.
City council accepted integrity commissioner Suzanne Craig’s report Monday night that Rob Hamilton should be reprimanded and removed as Barrie Downtown BIA chairman.
Just hours before the council meeting, Hamilton resigned as BIA chairman and from the board itself.
Council approved a motion to receive Craig’s report, endorse its finding that the Code of Conduct was breached, but that remedial actions be abandoned.
“There’s really nothing more we can do,” said Deputy Mayor Barry Ward. “He’s a private citizen and there is no way we can enforce remedial action.”
Craig’s report says Hamilton, a former Barrie mayor from 2003 to 2006, should be reprimanded and resign as BIA chairman for making a “derogatory term toward Black people," attend training on addiction as a mental illness, undergo human rights training, as a condition of remaining on the BIA board, and submit an apology letter he wrote, dated April 9, 2021, addressed to Craig in reply to her request for information. It would be posted on the city’s website and forwarded to Kelly McKenna, the BIA’s executive director.
“Mr. Hamilton has resigned completely from the BIA, overstepping your recommendations,” said Coun. Mike McCann, who asked Craig if she had any comment on Hamilton’s resignation.
Craig said she had no comment.
“This individual has chosen to step down… that is his choice,” she said.
“This resignation I fully understand,” said Coun. Jim Harris, who, along with Coun. Sergio Morales, sits on the BIA board as council appointees.
“I feel sad about it, that we are at this place, and I feel sad for the BIA,” said Coun. Clare Riepma. “This comes as a blow.”
Hamilton told BarrieToday last Friday that he would accept the training, but wanted to stay on as BIA chairman. That had evidently changed by Monday.
“I can confirm Rob Hamilton’s resignation is from the Downtown Barrie Business Association (BIA) board of directors, not just as chair,” McKenna said just before 4:30 p.m., Monday.
Hamilton emailed the BIA earlier that day to resign.
He did not return BarrieToday's phone and emails messages seeking comment.
Craig recommended Hamilton be removed as BIA chairman for a derogatory remark about Black people and offensive comments about the homeless made at last September’s BIA meeting.
A reprimand is a penalty under the Municipal Act, a strongly worded condemnation of a member of council or local board.
It is council which decides how to enforce its Code of Conduct, which is an agreed-upon understanding by all members of council and its associated boards about what standards should be met in the individual conduct of their official duties.
“(Hamilton) ought to have known, even if it was not his intent, that making the remarks he made would be reasonably perceived as inappropriate, offensive, insulting or derogatory,” Craig states in her report.
Craig said that at the Sept. 22, 2020 BIA meeting on Zoom, board members were discussing a supervised consumption site (SCS) that was being considered by the Simcoe Muskoka District Health Unit in downtown Barrie.
Hamilton spoke to the matter, saying the “downtown is not comfortable or safe and that people are carrying on like a bunch of Mau Maus.”
Craig says Mau Mau is a derogatory term toward Black people and originally referred to Kenyans of the Kikuyu tribe involved in the Mau Mau Rebellion in the 1950s, an insurgency against white colonists.
Later in the same meeting, BIA board member Chad Ballantyne said “everyone that lives downtown and walks downtown is a worthy citizen...”
Hamilton then interjects and said: “[T]hat’s just not true. … They are not a productive contributing citizen… Are they worthy? Yes… but if they’re screwing up other people…”
Ballantyne then stated: “Let me finish, let me finish. As a human, they are worthy and we don’t want to see them die.”
These comments by Hamilton spurred the Code of Conduct complaint against him, which was filed March 16. Craig’s report does not identify who made the complaint.
“The respondent (Hamilton) did not dispute using the term Mau Mau,” Craig’s report states. “I find that (Hamilton)’s use of the term Mau Mau was inappropriate, offensive, insulting or derogatory. While (Hamilton) states that he was unaware of its historical origins and he did not intend to be derogatory, his statements were received as offensive and derogatory, regardless of his intent,” she said. “I note that (Hamilton) has apologized for and regrets having used the term.
“I further find that (Hamilton) made derogatory comments when he suggested that certain individuals who suffered from mental illness, substance addiction and homelessness, were not worthy citizens.”
Hamilton apologized again on April 9.
“I offer my sincere apologies for my remarks and the harm they have caused,” Hamilton said in Craig’s report. “I recognize that my comments were both inappropriate and offensive, and for that I am sorry.”
Craig states the code requires members of council and local boards to refrain from making inappropriate comments or gestures to or about an individual where such conduct is known, or ought reasonably to be known, to be offensive to the person(s) to whom they are directed or are about.
“It’s not only what the respondent (Hamilton) said, it’s how he said it,” she said. “I don’t give anyone a pass. My role is to enforce the code."
