The Integrity Commissioner for the City of Brampton has not reprimanded Mayor Patrick Brown over allegations he was using municipal staff on his Conservative leadership campaign. .“I am vindicated now that the Integrity Commissioner ruled that I did nothing wrong,” said Brown in a Thursday statement. .“The allegations came from a bogus story from Rebel Media, and pushed by Elaine Moore, and both should apologize to all the city staff they smeared with false allegations.” .Rebel News reported in June Brown was running a secret war room operation in Vaughan, ON, which it observed for weeks. .Rebel said City of Brampton senior employees were working on the campaign while allegedly being paid by the municipality. .Other city employees had been travelling across Canada with Brown while allegedly being on the municipality’s payroll. .Brown said Rebel’s obsession with him is “based on my history of standing up against their agenda of hate, intolerance, and Islamophobia.” .Principles Integrity reported the electronic time records of his office staff shows all of the time worked during normal working hours on his Conservative leadership bid was recorded as vacation, lieu time, or a leave of absence. .“Accordingly, we found there to be no reasonable grounds to believe that a contravention of ‘another Act’ (Canada Elections Act) occurred,” said the Integrity Commissioner for the City of Brampton. .“Nor did we obtain evidence to substantiate the allegation the mayor contravened the Brampton Code of Conduct by having his staff work on his CPC Leadership campaign on city-paid time.” .The integrity commissioner said there was not any evidence it could find indicating the mayor compelled any employee to work on his campaign. It said the evidence obtained by it was in 2019, staff were informed they could work on campaigns during unpaid time. .“Their story was motivated by politics and not truth, and the entire investigation was a waste of taxpayer money,” he said. .Rebel publisher Ezra Levant said he stands by the news outlet’s “investigative, fact-packed journalism which has not been repudiated or refuted in any way.”.“The videos speak for themselves,” said Levant. .He said Rebel reporter David Menzies will be doing a follow-up story. .Brown was disqualified from the Conservative leadership race on July 5. .READ MORE: Patrick Brown disqualified from Conservative leadership race.“The information provided to date by the Patrick Brown campaign did not satisfy concerns about their compliance with our rules and procedures and/or the Canada Elections Act,” said Conservative Leadership Election Organizing Committee Chair Ian Brodie. .“The chief returning officer has therefore recommended to LEOC that LEOC disqualify Patrick Brown and earlier tonight LEOC agreed to do so."
The Integrity Commissioner for the City of Brampton has not reprimanded Mayor Patrick Brown over allegations he was using municipal staff on his Conservative leadership campaign. .“I am vindicated now that the Integrity Commissioner ruled that I did nothing wrong,” said Brown in a Thursday statement. .“The allegations came from a bogus story from Rebel Media, and pushed by Elaine Moore, and both should apologize to all the city staff they smeared with false allegations.” .Rebel News reported in June Brown was running a secret war room operation in Vaughan, ON, which it observed for weeks. .Rebel said City of Brampton senior employees were working on the campaign while allegedly being paid by the municipality. .Other city employees had been travelling across Canada with Brown while allegedly being on the municipality’s payroll. .Brown said Rebel’s obsession with him is “based on my history of standing up against their agenda of hate, intolerance, and Islamophobia.” .Principles Integrity reported the electronic time records of his office staff shows all of the time worked during normal working hours on his Conservative leadership bid was recorded as vacation, lieu time, or a leave of absence. .“Accordingly, we found there to be no reasonable grounds to believe that a contravention of ‘another Act’ (Canada Elections Act) occurred,” said the Integrity Commissioner for the City of Brampton. .“Nor did we obtain evidence to substantiate the allegation the mayor contravened the Brampton Code of Conduct by having his staff work on his CPC Leadership campaign on city-paid time.” .The integrity commissioner said there was not any evidence it could find indicating the mayor compelled any employee to work on his campaign. It said the evidence obtained by it was in 2019, staff were informed they could work on campaigns during unpaid time. .“Their story was motivated by politics and not truth, and the entire investigation was a waste of taxpayer money,” he said. .Rebel publisher Ezra Levant said he stands by the news outlet’s “investigative, fact-packed journalism which has not been repudiated or refuted in any way.”.“The videos speak for themselves,” said Levant. .He said Rebel reporter David Menzies will be doing a follow-up story. .Brown was disqualified from the Conservative leadership race on July 5. .READ MORE: Patrick Brown disqualified from Conservative leadership race.“The information provided to date by the Patrick Brown campaign did not satisfy concerns about their compliance with our rules and procedures and/or the Canada Elections Act,” said Conservative Leadership Election Organizing Committee Chair Ian Brodie. .“The chief returning officer has therefore recommended to LEOC that LEOC disqualify Patrick Brown and earlier tonight LEOC agreed to do so."
