The war of words over an integrity investigation into a former councillor continues.
Last night, council received the Integrity Commissioner’s interim report on allegations of breach of council code of conduct against Derek Robertson.
However, council voted not to allow Robertson to speak on the issue – a move Robertson took great exception to.
“Some group of conspiracy of councillors now, that’s all we can gather, said they only want to hear about this once, they want to limit the amount of dialogue,” Robertson says. “They aught to all be well aware there’s going to be a lot of complaints throughout Ontario, this is a new phenomenon, and they’re subject to it next.”
Integrity commissioner Paul Watson claims Robertson and his lawyer, Steve Pickard, made a serious breach of protocol by speaking to reporters about the investigation and releasing a confidential preliminary report to some media outlets.
The interim report also says Pickard’s written response to the preliminary report has raised a number of legal issues that need further investigation.
Watson expects to have a final report to council within the next 30-45 days.
