A new integrity report has found that Ward 8 councillor John-Paul Danko violated the city’s code of conduct.
Earlier this year Danko made controversial comments about a local sex work advocate after she used her speech at an awards gala to criticize police brutality.
Danko may have apologized for the X post that landed him in hot water, but it didn’t stop Hamilton’s integrity commissioner from calling it an attack on the advocate, rather than a reasoned critique.
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During an awards gala in March, Sex Workers’ Action Program (SWAP) executive director Jelena Vermilion made a speech highlighting police brutality.
“I think of Shevrona Abdi, a sex worker in 2003 who lost her life from police interaction. I think of the woman who was attacked last year,” Vermilion said during the speech.
Ward 8 councillor John-Paul Danko, didn’t take too kindly to those comments. He made his distaste known on X. He wrote that Vermilion was one of two recipients that “went out of their way to spit in the face of those in attendance” and described her as an “ungrateful, self-righteous, toddlers with a microphone.”
Two hours later, he deleted the post and apologized.
Vermilion filed a code of conduct complaint against him and last Friday, the city’s integrity commissioner David Boghosian found Danko violated rules.
“I’m ambivalent. I think it’s really good that there was a vindication that the code of conduct was violated,” Vermilion said.
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In his report, Boghosian wrote Danko’s comments do “not constitute socially acceptable, polite behaviour that shows respect and good manners” and “failed to meet the high standard of ‘decorum’ councillors are held to.”
But Vermilion is also disappointed by parts of it.
In one section Boghosian writes that Vermilion “has successfully and wilfully traded off Danko’s comments to enhance her media presence and stature in the community.”
“It’s really offensive,” Vermilion said.
Boghosian was questioned about it in council on Wednesday. Ward 2 councillor Cameron Kroetsch said, “The comment you made was there was a benefit here not having spoken to the person themselves, I just wondered where that came from.”
Boghosian responded, “I don’t know why someone would retweet a tweet they found offensive if there wasn’t some gain motive.”
In a statement sent to CHCH News via email, Danko said, “It is very important that the office of the Integrity Commissioner is not used as a referee to settle trivial social media disagreements or as a mechanism for retaliation against elected officials because of possible ‘self serving’ motivation as the IC indicated was the case here.”
Danko will not face a penalty for his violation.
The integrity commissioner also recommended council consider amending its code of conduct to fill gaps relating to social media. Councillor Kroetsch moved a motion to accept that recommendation and council referred the motion to the governance subcommittee.