City's LGBTQ advisory chair asks for judicial review against integrity commissioner

The chair of Hamilton'sLGBTQ advisory committee is taking the city's integrity commissioner to court, sayingthe commissioner acted outside of his jurisdiction by investigatinghim.

Kroetsch and his lawyer, Nick PapageorgeofRoss & McBride LLP, filed an application for a judicial review last Friday.

The application, obtained by CBC News,statesKroetsch was denied procedural fairness, andargues city bylawsdon't allowthe commissioner to investigate members of local boards. The application also assertsthe process was unfair becauseKroetsch's submissions weren't considered.

The commissioner's report statedKroetsch went against city clerk advice and tweeted a motion with employee names presumably ofa new Hamilton Police Servicesboard appointee, and a former city employee with ties to a neo-Nazi organization.

The report from Principles Integrity recommended council reprimand or unseat Kroetsch, who councillors appointed to the council advisory committee in 2018.

Kroestchpreviously expressed confusion about the ordeal, saying histweet didn't contain the names.He also pointed to a link to the unredacted motion on the city's website.

Kroetschmay file another judicial review

Nrinder Nann, Ward 3 councillor, moved a motion during a city council meeting Wednesdayto reconsider the reprimand.

"I no longer feel like a reprimand was required," she said. "It's been stated two wrongs don't make a right, but it's quite mind-boggling to me that the city's website had a fully unredacted version of the document with names included of individuals online and publicly available during the investigation of a citizen volunteer, which was the basis of the reprimand."

Councillorsinstead voted 11-3 to defer until after the review is complete.

Nicole Auty, city solicitor, saidthe city isn't named in the application, but is responsible for paying for and mounting the defence.

Brad Clark, Ward 9 councillor, said the application effectively hobbles council from acting on it further.

"I wanted to clear this up today," he said, but "I can't raise those [concerns] today without interfering in the judicial process."

"What an interesting box we find ourselves in."

Kroetsch said in an interview Wednesday he will file anotheranother application for judicial review against city council for their reprimand.

"I was hoping that today city council would do the right thing and rescind the reprimand," he said.

"We could have filed against the city last week, but we were hoping they would have done the right thing."

How they voted

Who voted to defer until after the judicial review

Mayor Fred Eisenberger, Jason Farr (Ward 2), Sam Merulla (4), Chad Collins (5), Tom Jackson (6), Brad Clark (9), Maria Pearson (10), Brenda Johnson (11), Arlene VanderBeek (13), Terry Whitehead (14), Judi Partridge (15).

Who was opposed

Maureen Wilson (1), NrinderNann (3), John-PaulDanko (8).

Abstained: Esther Pauls (7).Absent: Lloyd Ferguson (12).