Judge ‘fixed’ case against me, says Petrowski
In response to having been found in violation Niagara Region’s code of conduct for council for the fourth time in a year, St. Catharines Coun. Andy Petrowski says politicians should not be subject to a code and accused the judge who ruled against him in an unconnected matter of “fixing” the case.
“In my mind the fix was in, the outcome appeared predetermined, possibly prearranged. Edwards should be severely disciplined for not disclosing his conflict before my trial started,” Petrowski wrote in an email about Justice David Edwards, who dismissed Petrowski’s attempt to block the release of integrity commissioner reports which slammed his conduct.
In emails sent to The Standard Monday, Petrowski also lashed out at Ontario Premier Kathleen Wynne, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau — both of whom he labelled “tyrants” and “communists” — and The Standard, which he incorrectly said is receiving millions of dollars in government funding.
“The only ‘free speech’ we have in Canada is speech that Kathleen Wynne and Justin Trudeau agree to. Then, of course, our leaders can justify giving away millions of taxpayer dollars to terrorists and Fake Dishonest News like The Standard,” Petrowski wrote in response to queries from The Standard about an integrity commissioner report that found he violated council’s code of conduct. “The Constitution and Charter of Rights don’t exist for average Canadians in the minds of these Liberal tyrants except when it suits their radical communist cause.”
In a report going to council Thursday, regional integrity commissioner Edward McDermott found that Petrowski violated council’s code of conduct in April when he did not declare a conflict of interest during an attempt to block the release of reports by former integrity commissioner John Mascarin. Knowing that Mascarin was investigating complaints into his conduct, Petrowski asked the regional corporate services committee to block any outstanding integrity reports until council could get a legal opinion on the constitutionality of the process and code of conduct.
Mascarin’s reports — they found Petrowski violated the code of conduct three times — were not blocked by council.
In finding Petrowski violated the code, McDermott, hired by council in June, pointed to the section of the code that requires councillors to immediately declare a conflict of interest on any matter in which they have a personal or family interest. He has recommended that council reprimand Petrowski and that all councillors be reminded of their obligation to follow all sections of the code of conduct, including those that pertain to conflicts of interest.
The report says several attempts were made to reach Petrowski so he could provide a response and be interviewed, but those requests went unanswered.
In an email sent early Monday morning, Petrowski said he had never heard of McDermott and received no communication from him. In a later email, he said he knew the Region had a commissioner but did not know who it was.
“I knew council hired a new integrity commissioner but I don’t remember his name any more than I remember the names of hundreds of other suppliers the Region hires in a term,” wrote Petrowski, who claimed he was unaware of the integrity investigation until after The Standard posted a story online Saturday about the issue.
McDermott could not be immediately reached for comment Monday.
In Petrowski’s emails, the two-term St. Catharines councillor said politicians should not be subject to a code of conduct because “we already have laws and elections to oversee politicians.”
“The code of conduct is created by politicians, starting with Kathleen Wynne, to go after politicians. Our code is being used as a Get-Petrowski weapon.”
The complaint investigated by McDermot was filed by St. Catharines resident Haley Bateman, who is not a member of government council.
Petrowski also claimed he did not have to declare a conflict of interest because he was defending himself against Mascarin.
Petrowski also lashed out at Justice David Edwards, the judge who threw out Petrowski’s attempt to sue regional council on constitutional grounds to block the release of Mascarin’s reports in May. Shortly before Mascarin’s findings were to be made public, Petrowski and Fort Erie resident Fred Bracken filed the court action against most, but not all, of regional council, saying Mascarin’s reports violated his charter rights and would hurt his reputation. Edwards tossed the case out of court and ordered Petrowski and Bracken to pay the Region $5,500 in legal expenses. Bracken says he is appealing. In his Monday emails, Petrowski alleged Edwards should have recused himself from the case.
“I did not have a fair review by an impartial body because Justice Edwards did not declare his obvious ‘conflict of interest’ in my trial based on his public admission that he is a basketball buddy of the regional chair (Alan Caslin),” Petrowski wrote. “It seems that the fix was in before my trial even started. Shame on Edwards.”
Caslin was one of a handful of councillors not named in Petrowski’s and Bracken’s lawsuit. Petrowski has never answered questions about why some councillors were not part of his suit.
“I don’t know what I did, or didn’t do, to deserve that,” Caslin said Monday of being excluded from the lawsuit.
Caslin said he does play basketball with Edwards and “we’re about the same size, so even though he is a better player than I am, I end up covering him all the time.”
Caslin said he never discussed Petrowski’s suit with the judge.
“Not only that, I don’t think he’d ever want my input,” he added.
Caslin said the Region’s code of conduct is still in the process of being updated. The process began in
the wake of Mascarin’s rulings against Petrowski and council is aiming to have the code updated before the end of the year.
The draft code was sent to McDermott for input. The integrity commissioner has provided feedback, Caslin said, although his comments have not yet been made public.
“We’re very close,” Caslin said. In addition to attacking the code and Edwards, Petrowski lashed out at The Standard, saying the paper was receiving millions of dollars in funding from taxpayers.
The newspaper does not receive public funding. The federal government announced last week that it would support “local news media” to the tune of $75 million. However, none of that money is being directed at newspapers. The funding is going to fashion magazines, TV listing publications and celebrity gossip magazines. Newspapers, including Niagara’s daily and weekly papers, were excluded from the funding.