The College ward councillor, who's facing numerous allegations of inappropriate behaviour, must attend council by the end of November or his seat will be declared vacant.
Precisely zero attending members of Ottawa’s city council approved medical leave for Rick Chiarelli and his acute need-a-vacation-in-Prague-itis, whose sudden onset of symptoms occurred less than a month before his former staffers (all women in their 20s) started to come forward with complaints of bizarre and sexually-oriented requests and comments made by him, even in interviews for their jobs, and with the background of the threat of the staffers being fired at the least provocation.
Some of those requests and comments are described under the cut.
A total of thirteen former staffers have now come forward. One of the first complainants reported being asked to wear clothes that showed “side-boob.” Another said that she, while in a state of severe anxiety, was handed a revealing red dress and told to go into a nightclub to “recruit volunteers” in multiple incidents, even outside the city. Dozens of other incidents, ranging from inappropriate workplace conversations to outright sexual harassment, have been reported to the city’s integrity commissioner.
In the face of specific and detailed descriptions of multiple incidents by multiple witnesses, he claimed the accusations are “spurious,” denying ever “[treating] a member of [his] staff (including job candidates) in a sexually harassing, discriminatory, or inappropriate ‘gender-based’ fashion.” He has accused the complainants of being manipulated by “political adversaries attempting to persuade a number of women to join an organized group to speak negatively about [him].” He has not made any statement as to who these adversaries in municipal politics might be, though he did make a link to his efforts in July to bring transparency to the city’s land acquisition process for public transportation.
As more information has become public, the story has become a point of shame for Ottawa, a city that thinks of itself as quiet, safe, and respectful. After declining to comment on the initial complaints a month ago, Mayor Jim Watson said this week that the complaints have “cast this shadow over the whole city, and city hall in particular.” He, and many in City Hall, are now seeking reliable and safe avenues for city council staffers in particular to report inappropriate behaviour.
Chiarelli was seeking medical leave for an as-yet unspecified condition that he blames for his inability to attend council meetings since the beginning of September. Though he has not shown any intention of resigning, if he does not attend any meetings by the end of November, his council seat will be declared vacant and a new councillor will be elected to replace him. If the city’s integrity commissioner finds that Chiarelli’s behaviour was inappropriate, the maximum punishment he can receive is being docked 90 days’ pay; in the meantime, he continues to collect his six-digit public salary.
