By Pam Wright
Local Journalism Initiative Reporter
Marjorie Crew says she has no plans to resign from her seat on Chatham-Kent council.
The veteran Chatham councillor made the comment at the Feb. 5, C-K council meeting as she displayed a postcard emblazoned with her picture. The text on the card called on her to resign in relation to her stance on municipal flag flying in Chatham-Kent and a subsequent integrity commissioner investigation that saw North Kent Coun. Rhonda Jubenville’s pay suspended for a three-month period.
Crew quipped that Anti-Democracy Council C-K members, the presumed creators of the postcard, used a “really good” photograph of her.
“I appreciate that because I spent a lot of money on those pictures,” Crew said.
“This is from a very limited, but loud group of people,” she said as she held up the card, noting she wouldn’t waste a “dime or a dollar” to return to sender.
The postcard writer criticizes Crew for her “egregious” assault on democracy and the “weaponization” of a “flawed integrity commissioner’s report” against a councillor, although it did not specifically name Jubenville.
“I won’t resign,” Crew said. “I support democracy…I fully support it.”
She advised the sender to stop wasting their money by sending her any more mail, noting her skin is a “little thicker than that.”
The councillor said she wanted to bring the matter up in open session to make the public aware.
“I don’t think people realize how much of this we have been putting up with,” Crew said, adding similar notices have been put on councillors’ vehicles, and online petitions have cropped up targeting some municipal politicians featuring derogatory and “hateful” terms that “we don’t stand for in Chatham-Kent.
“I will stand up for it every single time,” Crew said. “This is wrong and I’m not going to put up with it.”
Her comment was met with applause.
South Kent Coun. Anthony Ceccacci said he thinks it’s important the public is aware of the negativity directed at council.
“This has been happening more and more,” he said. “You would think and hope that some of this stuff would go away but it’s not.”
Ceccacci added that messages on his windshield and in the mail are an “assault.”
He pointed out individuals run for office to “help people, not to always be assassinated by a very select group of people” trying to undermine the process.
In speaking to the matter, Jubenville said she was unaware of the postcard campaign and said she had nothing to do with it.
“I want to confirm for the public that I have no knowledge of them (the postcards),” she told council.
And while she has never brought it forward to council, Jubenville said she’s also been on the receiving end of abuse from the public, pointing out that someone has even created a fake website in her name.
“It’s very offensive,” the councillor said.
“But I guess if we’re airing our dirty laundry, I guess I will as well.”
However, Jubenville stressed she has not, nor would not, attack any of her fellow council members and wants to continue working with them.
Mayor Darrin Canniff said that it’s good that council was having the discussion.
“We are here as a council to make Chatham-Kent better,” Canniff said, but admitted that council members are putting up with more negativity, particularly in the last few years.
“We are going to have differences of opinion, I can guarantee that, “Canniff said. However, he encouraged council to continue to move forward to make “great things happen” in C-K for the remainder of the council term.
The discussion revolves around a municipal flag flap that started last year when Jubenville brought forward an unsuccessful motion to only fly government flags at municipal sites. Her motion was prompted by the municipality’s decision to not fly a flag from the Life in Motion group, an arm of Right to Life Kent.
The LGTBQ+ community saw Jubenville’s motion as a way to protest the Pride flag. An investigation by former integrity commissioner Mary Ellen Bench determined Jubenville had violated council’s code of ethics by using her political position to bully and intimidate on social media.
Late fall, Jubenville filed a judicial review, which according to her lawyer takes issue with the way Bench concluded that Jubenville had breached council’s code of conduct. It states that all of the facts around the case were not made available to council.
The matter is still before the courts.
