Proposed by Orleans Member of Provincial Parliament Stephen Blais last August, the Bill was born out of Blais\u2019s experience on the Ottawa city council having witnessed councillor Rick Chiarelli face little consequences after behaving inappropriately toward three female colleagues in 2019.<\/p>\n
Though Ottawa took the harshest stance possible, that only amounted to suspending Chiarelli\u2019s pay for three months for each incident, the maximum penalty under the current Municipal Act. Chiarelli continued sitting on council until the 2022 municipal election when he chose not to seek reelection.<\/p>\n
Bill 5 seeks to address issues of accountability by requiring councillors to comply with the sam work=place violence and harassment policies of the municipality they represent, allowing the Integrity Commissioner to apply to the court to vacate a councillor\u2019s seat should they fail to comply, and restrict councillors whose seat has been vacated from seeking re-election immediately.<\/p>\n
\u201cConsequences need to be more severe than a paid suspension and women should no longer have to carry the shame of unwanted sexual advancements from their leaders in the workplace. Leaders must earn trust and respect and power should be used to advance society, not keep in in the Middle Ages,\u201d said Lajoie.<\/p>\n
Mayor Lajoie brought her support for Bill 5 to Casselman municipal council during their last meeting and hopes to have the council formally endorse the Bill during the next meeting.<\/p>\n
Casselman would be the first municipality in the United Counties of Prescott-Russell to offer their endorsement, and, apart from Ottawa, one of the only in eastern Ontario.<\/p>\n
Lajoie is also joining Marie-No\u00eblle Lanthier, president of Leadership F\u00e9minin Prescott-Russell, on May 31 at Queen\u2019s Park to pressure the Ontario legislature to vote in favour of Bill 5.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
A private member\u2019s bill is making its way through Queen\u2019s Park that seeks greater accountability for harassment and abuse coming from local leaders, such as councillors and mayors, and Casselman mayor Genevi\u00e8ve Lajoie is advocating for the municipality to sign on in support. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":29149,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[44],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-29148","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-politique"],"acf":[],"featured_media_global":[],"yoast_head":"\n