Mississauga councillors criticize mayor
Said to have misled on motion allowing mosques to broadcast call to prayer
Mississauga councillors had pointed words for Mayor Bonnie Crombie at a recent meeting over the handling of a motion allowing mosques in the city to broadcast an evening call to prayer during this year’s Ramadan. The comments, some of which suggested that Crombie misled council by providing incorrect information, came as part of Wednesday’s discussion on a motion to refer “the matter of broadcasting audible expressions of faith” to Mississauga’s diversity and inclusion advisory committee.
Coun. Ron Starr, who cochairs the advisory committee, said “I did not have all the right information at that (April 29) meeting” and the issue has “been fireworks. I think we depended on the leadership of this council to tell us why we should be passing such an important issue,” he said.
Coun. Karen Ras said she believed council received “misinformation,” and wanted the decision to allow the calls reversed.
“This is not how we make decisions in Mississauga,” she said. “We do our homework and we didn’t have that opportunity. This is a contentious issue, whether you like it or not.”
Crombie introduced the matter of the call to prayer, also called the azan, at the April 29 meeting. Coun . Pat Sait o moved the motion allowing mosques to broadcast the calls once per evening until May 24.
The motion was a “walk-on” item, meaning council was not formally presented with details of the measure prior to the meeting and it wasn’t on the publicly available agenda.
Walk-on items are not unusual, but Crombie said that the controversy around the motion was a “lesson” for her and others in not getting a staff report or doing broader consultation.
She said council has felt a lot pressure since the motion passed. “We were elected to lead and we were elected to take some tough positions,” she said.
At Wednesday’s meeting, Saito said comments critical of Crombie’s leadership were unfair and had any councillor moved to defer the April 29 motion for further study, she would still support mosques broadcasting the azan during the COVID-19 pandemic.
“I think we all supported it because we felt it was the right thing to do for people to have comfort during this special time,” she said.
Crombie said at the April 29 council meeting that Toronto and Brampton were allowing the calls and that “we (at Mississauga) seem to be the outlier.”
Mississauga council agreed to refer the matter of broadcasting “expressions of faith” to the diversity and inclusion committee after the pandemic.