Markham councillor disturbed by mask
Former council member Howard Shore reprimanded over monster decoration
It’s the kind of prank that would have gotten you a few laughs — in high school.
But in the halls of Markham’s municipal council, the act of pasting a picture of Frankenstein’s monster on the nameplate of a rival councillor has ex-councillor Howard Shore facing a public reprimand from his former colleagues and a slap on the wrist from the city’s integrity commissioner.
“Mr. Shore was not acting within the standards of professionalism the city of Markham expects of its councillors,” said integrity commissioner Ben Drody, in his report looking into the complaint filed by Councillor Valerie Burke.
In the report published on the city’s website this week, Drody found Shore “failed to be respectful of another member, and did not conduct himself with the appropriate decorum.”
Shore, who lost in the 2014 municipal election to Burke, did not respond to a request for comment. The two had been forced into a bitter race last year, after the two Thornhill wards they previously represented were merged into one.
But Burke says she was shocked when she drove into her parking spot on Dec. 1, 2014, the day of the inauguration for new councillors, and found a Frankenstein mask propped up against her name plate.
“My first reaction was, ‘What is that thing’? And then, I thought, that’s so creepy,” said Burke, who told the integrity commissioner she was “disturbed” by the action.
She then went to security personnel, who reviewed footage that showed Shore walking to her parking spot at 12:45 a.m. the night before with something in his hand, and then walking out empty-handed. His term as councillor ended at midnight.
Burke then filed a complaint with the integrity commissioner and took the matter to police.
Shore told the integrity commissioner he was clearing out his office, when he noticed the mask sitting on the top of one the boxes, and didn’t recognize it as his own. He thought because Burke had previously occupied the office, it could belong to her — and so left it in her parking spot.
“I intended no offence to Councillor Burke, whether in the context of harassment or lack of decorum,” Shore told the integrity commissioner.
Burke says she finds that hard to believe, and months later, the mask, which she has kept as evidence, still creeps her out.
“Whenever I look at the thing, it gives me the shivers,” she said.