What options are left for embattled Rick Chiarelli?
Rick Chiarelli may indeed keep his job. But how does he keep his head held high?
We hardly expect sainthood from our city councillors, but they do operate with a measure of moral authority, or at least basic trustworthiness. They handle public money and confidential information, launch our park carnivals, hand out awards or cut ribbons, give speeches to the elderly, pat our kids on the head.
Importantly, they help arbitrate disputes between parties — little citizen groups and powerful developers, what-have-you — in a world of competing agendas. We need honest brokers, truthful advocates.
It is not work for creepy people who wear conspiracy glasses, which, essentially, is the allegation against him. Young women with stories about strip-club visits and provocative clothing as job requirements, a counter-story about secret networks of enemies — the updated Chiarelli file, 30 years on, has all the elements for a career-ending immolation. (This newspaper has been unable to reach Chiarelli, through his office or at his home, despite repeated attempts. He released a statement denying the allegations.)
His problem now — well, there are many — is there is no real forum for him to clear himself, should such a thing even be possible. At this point, there is not going to be a “trial” of any kind, or any other place where the veracity of these allegations can be tested. (We shall set aside the rather potent idea this many women — and CBC and Postmedia have heard from more than half a dozen — do not, on a whim, make such things up.)
His suggestion for a human rights body to look at all these accusations — sexually inappropriate job interview questions, weird sexually based requests of staff — is silly. First of all, it is not his place to tell aggrieved women where to take their pain. Secondly, human rights commissions tend to be black holes where complaints take years to be resolved, if at all, and lawyering up can win the day.
Some of the complainants now live in other cities. They want to air their cases, not start second careers as amateur litigants.
The lengthy statement released by Chiarelli last week was, to be charitable, bizarre. You can tell he trained as a lawyer because his blanket denial was the kind of pro-forma thing lawyers write. In other words, in the absence of specifics presented to him in triplicate and because no one is under oath, just deny everything.
“I can say, without reservation, that I have never treated a member of my staff (including job candidates) in a sexually harassing, discriminatory, or inappropriate “gender-based” fashion,” his statement reads.
(Note the odd phrasing — “gender-based” fashion?)
It was Chiarelli’s explanation of the motivations, however, that stuck out most. In a word, it makes no sense.
His defence to these multiyear, multi-occasion allegations — which overlap and show a pattern, by the way — is that his dogged inquiries into the LRT procurement process have marshalled his enemies into a mob trying to bring him down.
Really?
Stories about Chiarelli’s LRT efforts reveal he has been trying to access information about what private land was purchased for Phase 1, how much was paid, and whether landowners were given “side deals” not in the public interest. Fair enough. He’s obviously heard something that sounds fishy. So ask away.
“I had no idea, at the time, of the direction that these political attacks might take,” he wrote. And neither do we, since the whole thing sounds so damn illogical.
A good number of councillors have already made up their mind about Chiarelli’s conduct. As more victims came forward, three of his city hall tablemates called on Chiarelli to resign (if the allegations are accurate) and the mayor expressed his disgust at the whole episode, siding with the women who had taken the brave step of coming forward.
Unless we missed it, there hasn’t been a single councillor who stood up to say: “Not so fast. We need to hear his side of the story and give him a chance to protect his good name.”
In fact, of the two councillors appointed to temporarily look after his ward, Coun. Scott Moffatt on Friday retweeted a photo of a new business, Conspiracy Theory Brewing Co., moving to Bells Corners, not far from Chiarelli’s house. Whatever the intent, it was difficult to read without a snicker, adding a winking mockery to Chiarelli’s public flogging.
So now what, indeed.
When his health is restored, his options are less than wonderful: resign and end his public life; or keep his job, take his medicine in whatever form it comes, and never really be cleared. This genie, especially in the year 2019, never gets backs in the bottle.
Fair? There’s no fair in politics. It is not conspired to be.