'Mortified' councillor emails apology before 45-day suspension: report
An Ontario town councillor has been suspended from council and committee meetings for 45 days after making a vulgar comment about a colleague that was captured on a live municipal livestream.
Smiths Falls Coun. Jay Brennan—who attended the Jan. 5 council meeting virtually—was heard on the livestream shortly after the meeting ended making a profane remark that appeared to target another councillor. The comment was removed from the town’s official recording, but has since circulated on social media.
“That f--ker should be shot and pissed on,” Brennan could be heard saying. Acting Mayor Peter McKenna told CBC the remark was seemingly directed at a fellow councillor.
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Public reaction, council’s reputation
McKenna said public reaction was immediate once the clip of Brennan’s utterance began to spread.
“I started getting phone calls — other members did [too] — from the public. And some emails. A couple of emails just saying, ‘Is this how you guys talk when the cameras aren’t rolling?’” he said, as reported by CBC. “The reputation of council was hurt, and we needed to get to the bottom of it and deal with it.”
The following day, Brennan emailed an apology to council, which McKenna described to CBC as coming from a “mortified” councillor.
At the next council meeting on Jan. 12, council voted to suspend Brennan from all council and committee meetings for 45 days, with pay. In a statement to the meeting, reported by CBC, Brennan acknowledged the decision and expressed remorse.
“I apologize to council, I apologized to council by e-mail. I apologize to the taxpayers and to my fellow councillors, to staff. And I have no choice but accept council’s decision,” he said. “[I’m] very disappointed in myself and frankly embarrassed. So not a good day.”
Meanwhile, a second councillor, Stephen Robinson, was also disciplined for breaching council rules by texting Brennan during the meeting. Robinson was suspended from council and committee meetings for 15 days, with pay, CBC reported.
Hostility in workplace
McKenna said council acted in the absence of a complaint to the town’s integrity commissioner. Under the current framework, only the integrity commissioner has the authority to impose financial penalties, he noted. CBC reported that McKenna called the council-imposed suspension “a very serious sanction” and said “council handled it maturely, business-like. There were no special favours.”
McKenna also told CBC that the conduct was “out of character” for Brennan, but confirmed the suspension means Brennan will be unable to participate as the town moves toward finalising its 2026 budget.
“Verbally threatening to attack a worker” falls under the category of workplace violence under the Occupational Health and Safety Act (OHSA).
Overlooking hostile work environment bullying examples—such as verbal abuse or intimidation—allows toxicity to grow until it meets hostile work environment definition standards is one of the most common mistakes employers make when it comes to addressing hostility in the workplace, says Kailash Ganesh, content marketer, in an article posted in Culture Monkey’s website.
