An integrity commissioner has ruled that a Windsor councillor violated the code of conduct with comments in the Windsor Star.
The report recommends Rino Bortolin be reprimanded and also apologize in council chambers.
Bortolin has retained legal counsel and is asking for a judicial review of the integrity report.
Bortolin’s lawyer David McNevin filed a request with the city clerk’s office Thursday asking for a deferral of the matter until this review has been conducted. At this point, the report is scheduled to be discussed at Monday’s council meeting.
The Ward 3 councillor called a press conference Friday morning to address the investigation into comments he made in 2017.
“It would be easier for me to simply apologize once more and put this behind me but the vital issues of democratic dessent and meaningful representation touched on in this report can not go unchallenged,” said Bortolin.
Bortolin was the centre of controversy back in the fall after comments he made in an Oct. 18 article in the Windsor Star, where the councillor said, “there is no money for a $3,000 alley light where that person got beat up and raped last week.”
Fellow councillor Jo-Anne Gignac requested a formal investigation into comments he made.
Bortolin made the comments in a reaction piece published in the Star regarding some of the spending decisions made by council, including a multi-million dollar expenditure for a holiday lights show and $750,000 to refurbish an historic streetcar.
He said he was trying to get across how difficult it is to go to residents and explain the spending decisions of council while alleyways remain unlit and continue to be a potential haven for criminal behaviour.
Bortolin apologized for the comments the day after the article was published.
