Calgary councillor admits photographing, sharing mayor’s licence plate

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Mayor Jyoti Gondek dropped a bombshell on councillors at a particular assembly Tuesday when she revealed Coun. Sean Chu took images of her car’s licence plates — images that later surfaced on-line.

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Chu didn’t deny the allegations and apologized in the course of the assembly for his actions.

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The element got here out throughout a particular assembly known as to cope with Chu’s place on the deputy mayor roster.

Though a vote was deliberate to take away Chu from the schedule, he informed council he would voluntarily step away from the position.

Councillors often take month-long phrases serving within the position, which entails attending particular occasions to talk, or stand in for the mayor as chair of council conferences.

Media experiences that arose simply earlier than election day in October 2021 revealed Chu, councillor for Ward 4, had been reprimanded for inappropriate bodily contact with a 16-year-old woman in 1997 whereas he was a police officer.

Chu was discovered responsible of discreditable conduct beneath the Police Act on the time however was by no means criminally charged.

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Gondek stated she not too long ago discovered Chu can be chair of the Dec. 6 assembly of council, which might have had him recognizing the Nationwide Day of Remembrance and Motion on Violence In opposition to Girls.

“Not solely am I loath to permit this to occur primarily based on the admitted discreditable conduct and different allegations that encompass Coun. Chu, he has additional compromised my private security on this previous yr,” stated Gondek.

“Provided that he took images of my car licence plate in a secured space, images that later surfaced from a member of the general public, I’m not comfy liaising with Coun. Chu’s workplace or entrusting him with the tasks of deputy mayor.”

The mayor took the weird step of taking council into a personal assembly to tell colleagues earlier than she shared the information publicly.

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Chu admitted to the accusation.

“I simply wish to publicly apologize to the mayor for what I’ve executed,” stated Chu.

He stated he didn’t wish to “bore the general public” together with his reasoning, however that he would settle for his punishment of exclusion from the chief parkade.

Councillors and the mayor have their very own safe parkade that’s separate from the general public parkade.

Chu additionally stated he had already met with council’s integrity workplace and brought a course coping with “this particular situation.”

He didn’t make himself obtainable for reporters’ questions after the assembly.

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The mayor stated she rejected Chu’s apology. Chatting with reporters after the council assembly, Gondek stated the licence-plate photograph had come to her consideration earlier this yr, after a member of the general public obtained a duplicate and alerted her workplace via e-mail.

“I didn’t need an apology,” stated Gondek. “I need this man to not be capable to do his job. I need him to resign.”

Gondek stated she didn’t file a grievance with the integrity commissioner however she is aware of one was made due to what he stated on the assembly about his coaching course.

“So somebody made the grievance,” stated Gondek. “I’m not aware about who it’s, however I’d think about it was somebody defending company property.”

Throughout the assembly, council additionally voted to ahead a Calgary police fee evaluate of the investigations into the 1997 incident involving Chu to the premier’s workplace.

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The intent is for the premier’s workplace to delegate the evaluate of the file to essentially the most applicable ministry, and for the federal government to obviously define whether or not they’ll do something additional and share their choice in “plain language.”

Coun. Sonya Sharp requested if council may additionally ship the matter of Coun. Gian-Carlo Carra’s integrity commissioner report into his undeclared property pursuits to the provincial authorities, to obtain the identical therapy.

Reconsidering council’s earlier course on that matter required a two-thirds majority, and the proposal failed on a vote, with councillors Carra, Courtney Walcott, Richard Pootmans, Jasmine Mian, Kourtney Penner and Raj Dhaliwal opposed.

Penner stated she has been a sufferer of sexual assault herself, and broke down in tears as she spoke about how the movement towards Carra took away from what council was making an attempt to perform in coping with Chu.

“Once we begin to conflate points, and once we begin to stack issues on prime of one another, issues lose their significance,” stated Penner. “I believe what we simply handled previous to this has been important by itself, and the way we’re accountable to victims of sexual assault is vital.”

Walcott agreed, saying it was improper to conflate potential monetary issues with issues involving sexual assault.

“It isn’t the identical because the police fee evaluate, and pretending any of it’s is deeply offensive,” he stated.

— With recordsdata from Invoice Kaufmann

brthomas@postmedia.com
Twitter: @brodie_thomas