A Belleville councillor was ordered out of the council chambers Monday night after refusing to apologize for one of his social media comments.
Councillor Paul Carr refused to apologize for comments he made in May, after being ordered to apologize by Mayor Mitch Panciuk.
Councillor Kelly McCaw had risen on a point of privilege about the comments.
Following the meeting, Panciuk told Quinte News he agreed Carr’s comments “could be seen as a slight on other members of council since he said his committee would act properly, making an inference that some other committees might not.”
“Councillor Carr posted to social media that he is going to continue to act with integrity and that his committees would act properly, making some inference that some other committees might not be,” Panciuk said.
“I looked at it and thought it reasonable to look at the suggestion he was making that other committees weren’t behaving or operating in the same way he would be doing.”
In an interview with Quinte News, Councillor Carr answered.
He continued, “I am very careful about what I say and in this instance, I was speaking about myself.”
The issue originally came from an interview Panciuk did on CJBQ’s Lorne Brooker Show in which the mayor said he may change the way chairs are chosen for city committees.
At council, McCaw said Carr’s comments cast doubt on her as a committee chair and every other councillor who chairs a committee.
“I pride myself on my integrity,” she said and that any other member of council should not have their integrity challenged.
Carr can return at council’s next session in June.
Belleville Councillor Garnet Thompson at city council June 10, 2019 (Photo: Mary Thomas/Quinte News)
Also at the meeting, Councillor Garnet Thompson noted that at a previous council meeting, from which he was absent, McCaw referred to him while challenging council’s vote regarding the Economic and Destination Development Committee.
McCaw said Thompson was confused and hadn’t voted the way he had intended.
Thompson said that there was no confusion and he should not have been used as the reason for that vote.
Panciuk reserved making his decision saying he wanted to review Thompson’s written submission and the archived footage of the meeting.
