Ontario election - your questions, answered by the candidates

Nazi symbols ban

On March 26, 2025, I will table a motion at Council which calls on the federal government to ban Nazi symbols.  

College Ward is home to Ottawa’s largest Jewish community and we have seen a sharp rise in antisemitism here. Groups and individuals now brashly displaying this terrible symbol of hate on their vehicles, clothing, and signs.  

18 countries have banned this symbol and I believe it is time for Canadians to do so as well. 

I have been working with B'nai Brith Canada, who currently have a campaign to encourage the federal government to ban Nazi symbols such as the Nazi hooked cross (Hakenkreuz). It is sometimes called a swastika, which is a Sanskrit word we're not using out of respect to the Hindu community, where this has been an ancient holy symbol for hundreds of years. 

My motion, which Mayor Sutcliffe has kindly seconded, calls on Council to write to the federal government in support of B'nai Brith Canada's campaign. It also calls on the Federation of Canadian Municipalities (where I'm a member of the National Board of Directors) to consider a similar motion. 

I expect the motion to be debated and voted on at the following Council meeting on April 16, 2025.

 

Motion to ban Nazi symbols

Press release

Countries where Nazi symbols are banned

Non-governmental organizations that support the ban

Canadian jurisdictions that have endorsed the B’nai Brith Canada campaign to ban Nazi symbols

Province of Saskatchewan

Region of Durham

City of Pickering

Town of Whitby

X and Public Engagement: who should control the City’s relationship with our residents?

Today, the Finance and Corporate Services Committee voted down Councillor Dudas’ motion to move away from social media platform X  as a City communications tool (you can read the motion here). I am grateful to Councillor Dudas for her leadership on this.

The prevailing argument against the motion was that since the City had over 250, 000 followers on X (how many active accounts, how many live people, how many residents of the City, not known or questioned) it would be unwise to pivot to a different platform and risk losing contact.

Another argument that was given suggested that, with the evolution of X as an unsafe place for civic discourse, any new platform could evolve in kind, meaning the City might be always in a state of trying to find the new best place to share its updates.

Priorities! Priorities! Priorities! The tradeoffs that we're facing today

I’ve been reflecting about the next chapter of my serving College Ward as your Councillor.  

My aim was, for the first year or two, to prioritize the relationship with residents. I wanted people to know that they could find me, they could count on me to listen, and they could have confidence that I was always serving them with honesty and integrity.  

Although that journey is never complete, residents’ familiarity with me at this year’s Skating Party and your response to our Annual Progress Report have done a great deal to confirm that we in the College Ward office have been on the right track. It’s meaningful to me, after 3 years, to recognize familiar faces and to remember details about residents’ families, their stories, and to share memories.  

Moving into the latter half of my term, I am considering some of the big-ticket policy items, both in terms of finances but also residential impact. Without question, I will continue to communicate regularly, have annual events, and be present in the ward. My interests lay more on some tradeoffs that I think we are facing as a city, ones that I think aren’t being positioned in a clear enough way for residents to weigh in. I’ll offer up a few.