Ottawa city councillors will be asked to vote on a three-day suspension of pay for one of their own at their next meeting on Aug. 27.
The penalty was proposed in a report by Integrity Commissioner Karen Shepherd, dated Aug. 21, which found that Rideau-Vanier Coun. Stéphanie Plante had contravened the discrimination and harassment section of the code of conduct for councillors in online social-media activity during the public debate over the proposed construction of tent-like structures to temporarily shelter asylum-seekers in 2024.
In a prepared statement issued Friday, Aug. 22, and
posted on her website
, Plante “categorically” rejected the report’s findings.
“This is a curtailment of my freedom of speech. I was engaging in legitimate political debate,” Plante wrote in a bold-type section of that statement.
Plante went on to write she had received a complaint from the integrity commissioner in December 2024 about her engagement on social media on the proposal to place tent-like structures to house asylum seekers in temporary facilities in Kanata and Nepean.
“The individuals who made the complaints are affiliated with the former MPP for the potentially
impacted area, Barrhaven Residents Against Sprung Structures (BRASS), and the Barrhaven
Business Improvement Association (BBIA),” said the statement, which did not specifically name former Nepean MPP Lisa MacLeod, who had appeared at least once at a community rally opposing the project.
“These individuals and groups were voicing their opposition to the (tent-like structures) on social media, and I pointed out fallacies in their arguments, as well as connections between the individuals, and their personal and financial vested interests,” Plante continued.
She went on to write that the integrity commissioner had found her in contravention of the vode of conduct “based on her assessment of the use of this (puzzled expression) emoji — which is commonly used by other councillors without investigation” and a meme that Shepherd concluded the complainant had “felt” offended them.
In the conclusion of her report, Shepherd wrote that the recommended three-day suspension of pay was brief in acknowledgement that this had been Plante’s first breach of the code of conduct as well as other mitigating factors, including:
• This was the first integrity commissioner report to Ottawa city council focused on social media, and inquiry reports are intended to serve an educational purpose.
• Plante’s social-media remarks had been “disrespectful and appeared to be intended to discredit the witnesses; however, the language of the posts was not cruel or intensely hostile.”
• Plante displayed an openness to resolving the matter. She voluntarily deleted some of the social-media posts identified in the formal complaints, which were dated between Nov. 12 and Dec. 5, 2024, and expressed an openness to meeting with the complainants to discuss the issues and to request resolution of the complaints through an informal complaint procedure.
