Latest news with #Chiarelli
CBC
4 days ago
- Politics
- CBC
Rick Chiarelli was a victim of 'cancel culture,' his wife tells Bill 9 hearing
The wife of a former Ottawa councillor whose alleged sexual harassment prompted a provincial bill to enhance municipal accountability says the legislation would make it easier for public servants to be harmed by false accusations. Lida Chiarelli told a consultation on Bill 9 in Whitby, Ont., on Thursday, that her family had "lived through a nightmare" after her husband Rick Chiarelli was accused of sexual harassment in his role as an Ottawa councillor in 2019. "We all know beyond a shadow of a doubt that my husband did nothing wrong, but he had absolutely no way of defending himself," she told the Standing Committee on Heritage, Infrastructure and Cultural Policy. Three damning integrity commissioner reports in 2020 found that Chiarelli had sexually harassed women working for him. The council imposed the strictest penalty available — docking his pay for 450 days and then a further 90 days on his way out of office — but was unable to force him from office. Bill 9 aims to make it easier to remove misbehaving officials with a process that would include a unanimous vote by the rest of council. 'Cancel culture' But Lida Chiarelli said the bill would encourage "cancel culture" to destroy politicians via anonymous complaints. "Political assassinations should not be given credibility by a supposedly confidential formal process that favours the accuser but muzzles the person who should have the right to defend themselves," she told the hearing committee. "My husband was falsely accused of allegedly having said things to women in work interviews that they didn't like," she said. "There was no documentation, no proof, only hearsay for these allegations." Three women lodged formal complaints that the then College ward councillor had asked them inappropriate questions during job interviews, including about not wearing a bra to work events. Another report found that Chiarelli bullied and harassed a young female staffer by offering to pay her money to pick up a man from a Montreal nightclub and perform a sexual act on him. Chiarelli left office in 2022 having always maintained his innocence. Last week, two of Chiarelli's accusers addressed a Bill 9 consultation in Ottawa, with one of them saying the legislation as currently formulated would not have protected her.
Ottawa Citizen
08-07-2025
- Politics
- Ottawa Citizen
Chianello: How to fire bad councillors — Ontario isn't getting it right
When I first reported on allegations against then-Ottawa city councillor Rick Chiarelli in 2019, the reaction from readers was swift and visceral. Article content Yes, people were appalled by the stories: disturbing accounts from women who said they were told by Chiarelli not to wear bras to public events, were given flimsy clothing to wear, and taken to bars to 'recruit' men as volunteers. But what stunned people even more was the realization that nothing could be done to remove Chiarelli from office. Not by the province. Not by the public. Not even after multiple damning reports from both the city's former and current integrity commissioners. Article content Article content Article content And that disbelief never really went away. Article content Over the past five years, I've heard from dozens of people — victims, staffers, elected officials, voters — all asking the same question: how is it possible that an elected official can be found to have harassed or harmed others in the workplace, and still keep their job? Article content Now, the province has finally responded — in theory. Article content This spring, Ontario's Progressive Conservative government introduced Bill 9, the Municipal Accountability Act, 2025, which passed second reading last month. On paper, it's the government's answer to calls from multiple quarters for a legal mechanism to remove municipal councillors from office for egregious misconduct. Article content Bill 9 does offer a few welcome changes. It mandates training for councillors on their codes of conduct. It gives the province authority to impose those codes if municipalities fall short. And it adds oversight to ensure municipal integrity commissioners don't have conflicts of interest — a needed step, especially after revelations by CBC Ottawa that some commissioners were also serving as their municipality's lawyer, a conflict the Ontario ombudsman rightly flagged as problematic. Article content Article content But on the core issue — the ability to remove a council member who has seriously violated the code of conduct — Bill 9 falls short. In fact, it sets up a process so convoluted and politicized that it's hard to imagine it ever being used successfully. Article content Article content Here's how it would work. Article content If a local integrity commissioner finds that a councillor's misconduct caused harm to someone's health, safety or well-being — and potentially if the behaviour was repeated — they can recommend removal from office. That recommendation then goes to Ontario's Integrity Commissioner, who launches a second full inquiry. Article content If the provincial commissioner agrees the councillor should be removed, they make a recommendation. But that recommendation doesn't trigger removal. Article content Instead, it's sent back to the councillor's own colleagues — their fellow council members — who must vote unanimously to remove them from office within 30 days. And every single councillor must be present for the vote to count. If someone is sick, on vacation, or slinks off to the washroom, the vote fails. And if council doesn't hold a vote within that 30-day deadline, Bill 9 is silent on what happens next.
Yahoo
27-05-2025
- General
- Yahoo
Rockford honors fallen servicemen with solemn Memorial Day ceremony
ROCKFORD, Ill. (WTVO) — There wasn't a dry eye in the house at a solemn remembrance ceremony at Veterans Memorial Hall, honoring loved ones, friends, and other servicemen and women who gave the ultimate sacrifice. 'Memorial Day is not just a holiday. It is a solemn reminder of the sacrifices made by those who wore the uniform. These heroes defended our freedoms and never returned home,' said Winnebago County Chairman Joseph Chiarelli. The service followed Rockford's annual Memorial Day Parade through downtown. 'It's so important to honor those who have lost their lives, who gave up their life for our freedoms and to be able to honor them is what we should be doing every day. So hopefully today, everyone can take a moment to remember what it costs for freedom,' Chiarelli said. 'I think what moves me, especially this morning, is my little daughter gave me a note that said, Thank you for your service and please don't go away to the army that long again. And I kind of teared up a little bit. And then it made me think of all the fathers and mothers and even brothers and sisters who didn't come home back to their families,' said 2nd Ward Ald. Jonathan Logeman, who also serves with the Illinois Army National Guard. 'When you think about the solemn nature of the sacrifice that we make, being home from our families or even possibly making the ultimate sacrifice, it just makes me so proud to be a part of the United States Army. Especially on a day when we think about those who did pay that ultimate sacrifice,' Logeman continued. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Ottawa Citizen
13-05-2025
- Politics
- Ottawa Citizen
Denley: Ottawa's flawed transit system built on what people once wanted
Frustration with Ottawa's public transit system is understandable, but the root cause is not a large number of people who made remarkably stupid decisions over a long period of time, as it is now popular to conclude. Article content Article content In fact, it's almost the opposite. The light-rail decisions that are mocked today were both popular and rational when they were made. Article content Ottawans wanted the same kind of rail service that other cities had already had for years. To accomplish that, they kept electing and re-electing politicians who promised to make the dream a reality. Article content Article content People look back now and lament the loss of what they remember as a much better bus system, but there was a good reason why it had to change. It's hard to imagine now, but 25 years ago, buses clogged downtown streets at rush hours, particularly on Albert and Slater streets. Article content At the time, OC Transpo was moving about 10,000 people an hour in each direction downtown at rush hours. The streets were near capacity and transit ridership was growing rapidly. Light rail in a downtown tunnel was ultimately seen as the most viable solution to that problem. It would enable OC Transpo to move up to 24,000 passengers an hour each way. Article content It's fair to say that the city's first train decision wasn't the best. Then-mayor Bob Chiarelli wanted light rail that would run from downtown to Barrhaven, but with no tunnel. It was a short-term solution, and one that went north-south when Ottawa's main commute was east and west to downtown. The federal government refused to support the plan. Article content Article content In 2006, Ottawa voters rejected Chiarelli's plan and elected as mayor Larry O'Brien, who became a champion of a downtown tunnel and an east-west route. It was a plan that was more costly but also more rational. O'Brien argued that trains in a tunnel would be faster and more reliable. It seemed plausible. Article content Article content The decision to go with rail was widely regarded as the big-city thing to do. Skeptics, including me, questioned the high capital cost, but enthusiasm won the day. The first stage of the LRT was under way. Article content In 2010, voters elected Jim Watson as mayor. He'd been critical of the train plan, but quickly changed his mind when he figured out that others liked it. In the end, Watson became an enthusiastic supporter of light rail.
New York Times
30-04-2025
- Sport
- New York Times
Cheap beer and a suspect blocker: Before Mark Carney was Canada's prime minister, he was Harvard's No. 3 goalie
Mark Benning knew his job. The Harvard defenseman's priority was to retrieve pucks and deliver them quickly and accurately to Scott Fusco, Lane MacDonald and Tim Barakett, the Crimson's talented forwards. To get to pucks first, Benning required timely on-ice arrivals. It was up to Harvard's No. 3 goalie to open the bench door at just the right moment to let his puck-moving defenseman pounce onto the ice at full speed. Advertisement Mark Carney took the job seriously. He did it well. It was one of many things the future politician mastered during his time at Harvard. Hockey wasn't his professional destiny, but the Canadian prime minister has deep connections to it, from his college playing days to his Oilers fandom to a close friendship with longtime NHL executive Peter Chiarelli. On Monday, Carney's Liberal Party narrowly won the Canadian election, defeating the opposition Conservative Party, meaning Carney will remain prime minister. He has held the post since succeeding Justin Trudeau in March. Carney, 60, incorporated hockey into his campaign. In a promotional video shot at a hockey rink with Mike Myers, Carney goes back and forth with the comedian to confirm his Canadian roots. Both are wearing red Team Canada hockey jerseys. 'You're a defenseman defending a two-on-one. What do you do?' Canada's 24th prime minister asks Myers. 'Take away the pass, obviously,' Myers answers. On March 20, Carney, wearing the No. 24 jersey of his hometown Edmonton Oilers, participated in the morning skate at Rogers Place. That night, with Benning as one of his guests, Carney watched the Oilers lose to the Winnipeg Jets in overtime, 4-3. Carney, who spent his childhood in Edmonton, where he attended St. Francis Xavier High, has reiterated his Oilers fandom many times publicly, including a month later before the Oilers began their playoff run and days before the Canadian election. The quest for the Cup begins tonight in LA. To the best team in hockey: you know what to do.#LetsGoOilers — Mark Carney (@MarkJCarney) April 21, 2025 'He loves hockey,' says Benning, who also grew up in Edmonton. 'The two things — besides his family and his wife, obviously — that he loves are Canada and hockey.' Carney was good enough at the latter to earn a college scholarship. In the fall of 1983, Chiarelli moved into Straus Hall, his freshman dorm at Harvard. He met Greg Dayton, his new roommate. Advertisement Two doors down, Chris Sweeney, Dayton's best friend and fellow Belmont Hill grad, was settling in with an 18-year-old from Edmonton. Dayton went to visit Sweeney. Chiarelli tagged along and was introduced to Carney. The teenager that Chiarelli met in his first hour at Harvard would become his best man. 'We would have connected even if we weren't living that close together with each other,' says Chiarelli, who is from Nepean, Ontario. 'Because we would be at the hockey rink.' Chiarelli was a forward. In 1983-84, the freshman played in 27 games. It was 27 more than Carney. That season, Carney was behind two goalies: Grant Blair, a sixth-round pick of the Calgary Flames, and Dickie McEvoy. Blair and McEvoy were very good NCAA goalies. Carney, meanwhile, was listed at 5-foot-9 and 160 pounds, undersized for the position. Regardless of his competitiveness and puck-handling touch, he had weaknesses his teammates could exploit. 'I was going high blocker,' recalls Fusco when asked where he liked to shoot on Carney. 'Low stick,' counters ex-teammate Randy Taylor. Carney's situation did not change in seasons to come. John Devin entered the rotation, pushing Carney to practice part-time with the Harvard JV. But on March 9, 1985, Carney got his chance. In Game 2 of the Eastern College Athletic Conference quarterfinals, Harvard was beating up on Colgate. Crimson coach Bill Cleary pulled Blair and replaced him with Devin. Then in the third period, Devin got hurt. Carney came in. The sophomore stopped all five shots he saw. Harvard won 10-2. It was Carney's first and final NCAA appearance. 'His goals-against average is zero and his save percentage is 1.000,' Taylor says. 'Let's focus on that and not how many games he got in. For the chance that he got, he couldn't have done any better.' Advertisement In retrospect, Chiarelli, former general manager of the Boston Bruins and the Oilers and current vice president of hockey operations for the St. Louis Blues, believes Carney would have been good enough to be a No. 2 goalie elsewhere in the ECAC. 'He was realistic,' Chiarelli says. 'He was good at the sport and he loved it, but he wasn't going to change schools.' Carney did not go to Harvard to be a hockey player. After freshman year, Chiarelli, Carney and Dayton moved out of Straus. They lived together in Winthrop House. Their room became a second home for Benning. The defenseman had started his college career at Notre Dame. Benning transferred to Harvard after the Fighting Irish shifted to club status in 1983. In 1984-85, his first year at Harvard, Benning lived off campus in Inman Square, a residential and commercial neighborhood in Cambridge. Instead of walking back to his apartment after practice, Benning became what he termed Carney's adopted roommate. On Saturday nights, after home games at the Bright Center, Carney and his teammates were regulars at the Piccadilly Filly. Funds were tight. Beverage quality was not the priority. 'All of us were pretty cheap,' says Benning, now the founder of a venture capital firm called Excelsior. 'The cheapest beer we could find.' Carney graduated magna cum laude in 1987. He went to Oxford for his master's degree in economics, followed by his PhD. Carney continued playing hockey at Oxford. On one tour of Russia, Carney stared down a barrage of shots against a professional Soviet team. In March, Chiarelli attended Carney's 60th birthday party. Several of Carney's Oxford friends were there. They showed Chiarelli a picture of a hockey stick they had signed with goofy nicknames when they were students. Next to his signature, Carney had written his gag nickname: 'PM.' Chiarelli had a good laugh. As Harvard undergrads, Chiarelli regularly cracked to Carney he would become prime minister. Advertisement Taylor, a partner at LaBarge Weinstein, loves to fish. The former defenseman grew up in Cornwall, Ontario, going after walleye in the St. Lawrence River. Carney enjoys fishing too. One year, Taylor, Chiarelli and Carney had their lines in a lake in Quebec. Carney's phone was ringing so often that he had to get off their boat and head back to town. It was during Brexit. Carney was the governor of the Bank of England. The fish would have to wait. Carney started his career at Goldman Sachs. But service was a keener calling. Carney once joked to Taylor that in investment banking, the only difference his income made in his life was that he could wear a nicer suit to work. 'This guy could have spent his whole career in the private sector and made millions and millions and millions of dollars,' Chiarelli says. 'He was on partnership track. He chose to go into public service.' Fusco, the founder of Edge Sports Center in Bedford, Mass., is Harvard's all-time leading scorer with 240 points. He won the Hobey Baker Award as college hockey's top player in 1986. He had help getting there. Fusco, 62, remembers wind-lashed walks from the Harvard quad across the Anderson Memorial Bridge to practice at the Bright Center like they happened yesterday. He liked getting to the rink early to work on his shot. As Fusco crossed the Charles River, Carney was usually at his side. The goalie with no shot at playing was happy to stand in net while Fusco ripped off pucks for 45 minutes before practice. Carney was there to serve. (Top photos: Andrej Ivanov / Getty Images and courtesy of Harvard)
