A Windsor city councillor is speaking out following a ruling made on comments he made that were critical of council.
Ward 3 Councillor Rino Bortolin is requesting a judicial review after integrity commissioner Bruce Elman recommended that he be sanctioned by council for comments published in a local newspaper.
The report contends that Bortolin violated several provisions of city council's Code of Conduct for making the comments.
Bortolin tells BlackburnNewsWindsor.com that he understands why the process needed to happen, but it sets what could be a dangerous precedent.
"That precedent would be for all current council members, and any future councillors... once a decision is made, you have to accept it as is and cannot have any critical arguments against it. For me, that's where the problem lies," says Bortolin.
At the heart of the issue are comments made by Bortolin that were published in the October 18, 2017 edition of the Windsor Star, where he criticized council's decision to fund the Bright Lights Windsor project by calling attention to a sexual assault in his ward that didn't take place.
“When I have to continually go back to residents and say there is no money for a $3,000 alley light where that person got beat up and raped last week, it’s hard,” Bortolin is quoted in the Star.
Windsor police later indicated that they received no such report.
The motion to refer Bortolin's comments to the integrity commissioner was made in November by Ward 6 Councillor Jo-Anne Gignac.
Bortolin has apologized multiple times for the comment and acknowledges he could have used different words to express his frustration, but he doesn't think he should be sanctioned for trying to deal with a problem his constituents have brought to his attention.
"It was a bad choice of words, and it was something I should have been a little more clear about," says Bortolin. "But that's very different then disparaging or contesting council's decision, which I'm not prepared to apologize for at this point."
The integrity commissioner's report will officially be brought to council at Monday night's meeting.
-With files from Adelle Loiselle