Court order halts plans for sanction hearing against Edmonton city councillor over misconduct allegations

Sanction hearing for councillor halted Edmonton city councillor Jennifer Rice has obtained a court order to halt a sanctioning hearing against her. Jeremy Thompson reports.

A planned sanction hearing for an Edmonton city councillor accused of misconduct is on hold after a court order issued Tuesday stopped it.

A report by the city's integrity commissioner completed earlier this year had found that Coun. Jennifer Rice harassed and discriminated against a former employee of hers.

Rice, the councillor for southside Ward Ipiihkoohkanipiaohtsi, is fighting the findings of the report in court.

The application for a judicial review of the report was granted Tuesday to Rice's lawyer, Janice Agrios, by Court of King's Bench Justice John Henderson.

The lawyers for the city and the integrity commissioner agreed city council would not hold a sanction hearing until the review is completed.

The integrity commissioner's report to Edmonton city council came about four months after allegations by several former staff members surfaced late last year accusing Rice of "bullying" and being "toxic and abusive" toward employees.

One of Rice's former staffers filed an official code of conduct complaint.

The report has not yet been made public. Its existence became more widely known after court documents were filed for Rice early this month. The documents show an investigation was done and that Integrity Commissioner Jamie Pytel completed a report in March.

The court documents say Pytel dismissed one allegation of discrimination but found Rice had harassed her staff four separate times.

Rice says the investigation was unfair and that the report should be thrown out, arguing the incidents "simply amounted to an employer attempting to carry out normal supervision of an employee, including reassignment of tasks which the employee was unwilling or unable to complete."

Tuesday's court hearing is the first step in the councillor's legal battle against the investigation.

After the employees' allegations against Rice first surfaced Nov. 27, she disputed the reports that she bullied staff but refused to take questions from media about what happened.

In a statement Dec. 1, Rice offered an apology and said she was arranging workplace training.

City officials said at the time that Rice, in her roughly two years on council at that point, had a total of 19 employees in her office,and that no other councillor had more than six in the same time frame.

The civil filings by Rice say Mayor Amarjeet Sohi and several city councillors contacted the integrity commissioner about Rice. She says that shows they are biased against her and should not have a say in the sanctions she may face.

Sohi told reporters on Tuesday council members and administration have "no influence whatsoever" on the integrity commissioner's investigation.

"Investigations are done in a very thorough, impartial way," Sohi said at city hall.

Rice is demanding copies of the complaint made against her, witness statements and interview recordings. She also wants to know which councillors spoke to the integrity commissioner about her and what they said.

A judge will rule whether the report and its findings should be thrown out. A date for the ruling has yet to be set.