There’s a recent development into the tale of conduct at Timmins city council.

City Councillor Rick Dubeau is now being represented by local lawyer Peter Doucet and associate lawyer Stuart Weir to seek what avenues they can take as a result of Dubeau being kicked off several committees and boards.

He’s also taking issue with the conduct on display at city council meetings and elsewhere.

“I’m a firefighter, I don’t have a legal background,” Dubeau said, “I have some understanding of this but I need some help.  And these gentlemen have generously offered to help me out because they believe in my situation and what I’m trying to do.”

Doucet is doing this for free after reaching out to Dubeau last week.  He says a number of lawyers he has spoken to have shown the same concerns about what’s happened at city hall.

The next couple of days will be spent gathering facts.

“I don’t do anything without facts,” Doucet said, “Any decision that gets made has to be factual, honest, true and open.  I’m not going to start firing off legal pleadings without having all the facts.”

He says it remains to be seen if he’ll get cooperation, but adds he can get the necessary documents through a legal process if he doesn’t.

“If we truly believe that by-laws have been illegally applied, the procedure hasn’t been properly followed, there are remedies under the Municipal Act, both for review by a Superior Court judge (and) the Ombudsman is already investigating.”

On top of that, Doucet says there are more legal avenues they can take and will consider all options.

He adds people are allowed to disagree, and disagreement normally doesn’t mean that “you’re kicked out of the clubhouse” because “you don’t kowtow to a demand, that you’re going to make a grandoise of apology and specify words because someone doesn’t like the fact that you spoke your mind and said ‘I think we’ve been misled.'”

In dealing with courtrooms, judges and witnesses, Doucet says if that’s the worst that is said, it would be like “a day at the brownie beach.”

He references the happenings at Queen’s Park and on Parliament Hill, and the language used there.

“Seriously, this councillor who speaks his mind over a very concerning issue of somebody missing 0.8 kilometres on the Connecting Link, and all he says is ‘I think we’ve been deliberately misled’ and for that, he gets kicked out of the clubhouse, that concerns us.” Doucet said.

And that’s not all.

He points to the regular in-camera meetings, sole-sourcing of contracts and the process that led to the passing of next year’s eight-day Canada Day fireworks and music festival.

“I’ve watched a lot of Mayors and councils come and go.  I may have disagreed with a lot of their decisions but never once did I feel the need to use my legal skills to take issue with what’s happened over there on a day-to-day basis.”

Doucet takes issue with the lack of a public notice before the passing of the festival.

“You’d think that people would be given a heads up if this was going to be discussed.  Instead, the whole idea of the eight-day festival as opposed to what was originally authorized even got sprung on council the Friday before the Monday meeting.”

Dubeau touched on the constant 7-2 votes he and Councillor Joe Campbell are on the short end of.

He says councillors aren’t debating, some aren’t even speaking.

“The other night, when I talked about the sole-sourcing, (Mayor and councillors) just sat on their hands and when it came time to vote, 7-2.  So all this is set up way ahead of time and their constituents don’t know where they stand specifically on issues.  They just follow the direction of the Mayor.  That’s not the way a council is supposed to work.”

Dubeau adds he doesn’t raise his voice when he calls a Point of Order, “and yet, (Mayor Black) does.”

It’s not just inside council chambers either.  Doucet says he spoke to other communities on the Mayor’s dealings with them.

He didn’t specify what communities he’s reached out to, but says he’s “disappointed” to be told that “sometimes, they feel like they’re dealing with a petulant teenager.”

“Reach out and speak to other Mayors in Northern Ontario and ask them candidly about their dealings with our Mayor,” Doucet said, “The language that gets used.  The personal comments that are made, the inappropriateness.”

“When one holds themselves to that office, one is expected to rise to a certain degree of decency, correctness and leadership.”

Doucet says Dubeau should be put back on the boards and committees he was a part of until being kicked off during a September meeting of council.

He’s also encouraging disagreements and discourse as opposed to “do as I or we say or you will be excluded.”

“We’ve had a history of very very fine and elegant Mayors, certainly through my life time.  I know that Mayor Black has the capacity, I hope he’s able to find it.”

Doucet says they’ll be making inquiries and asking for specifics, details and documents to proceed.

“I hope that I don’t get the Freedom of Information Act shoved in my face.  But if I do, I know how to deal with that too.  That’ll just be a stall tactic, and we all understand that,” he added

He’ll be keeping us posted on developments, adding “if they don’t give it easily, we’ll get it the hard way.”

“This will get dealt with,” Doucet says, “And I hope we’ll be able to fix a lot of these concerning issues that many citizens have been talking about.”

We have reached out to Mayor Black for comment but he hasn’t responded as of yet.

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