August 23, 2022
(Photo: Picture of Nikki Gurdeep Kaur at Brampton City Council in May)
With the resumption of Council meetings, the City of Brampton has received two notable reports from their Integrity Commissioner. The City’s Integrity Commissioner has the mandated role to investigate complaints involving the code of conduct pertaining to members of Council.
The Nikki Kaur Complaint Against Councillor Santos
One of the complaints involved an allegation from Nikki Gurdeep Kaur that she was harassed by Councillor Rowena Santos at a meeting that occurred over 2 years ago. It was alleged, that at a meeting to discuss the attraction of a new university to Brampton, Councillor Santos used harrassing and bullying language towards Kaur.
After receiving the allegations at a public council meeting, a complaint was then filed by Council with the City’s Integrity Commissioner.
Upon completing the investigation, the Integrity Commissioner concluded that there was, “…no finding that Councillor Santos bullied or harassed the staff member.”
In response, Councillor Santos proclaimed, “Over the past few months, these false allegations have been used to weaponize and smear my credibility,” she continues, “Along with those who know me, I have been incredibly perplexed with such false allegations referring to one meeting over 2 years ago. I am pleased the Integrity Commissioner has now ruled that such allegations were unfounded.”
This is not the first time Nikki Kaur – as a city employee – has made salacious allegations of wrongdoing at City Hall.
The morning after losing her federal nomination bid for Brampton West, Gurdeep (Nikki) Kaur filed explosive allegations towards the Chief Administrative Officer (CAO) David Barrick and several members of the City’s senior management staff. Bypassing corporate policies, Kaur filed her complaints directly to City Council, and for full impact, to all media outlets.
Operating independently from the CAO and Council, City Clerk Peter Fay retained the services of Deloitte, who in turn assigned the investigation to a multi-disciplined team that included forensic auditors, workplace investigators and researchers. After spending over $500,000, the Deloitte forensic auditors concluded all the allegations filed by Gurdeep Kaur were unsubstantiated.
Nikki Kaur has now taken a leave of absence from the City and has registered as a candidate for the Office of the Mayor.
The Elaine Moore Complaint Against Mayor Brown
Former Councillor Elaine Moore filed a complaint with the Integrity Commissioner that Mayor Brown had been engaging City of Brampton staff to work on his Conversative Party of Canada leadership campaign contrary to the Council’s Code of Conduct.
This is the same Elaine Moore that a Gang of Six Councillors (led by Councillors Pat Fortini and Martin Medeiros) tried to pre-appoint in order to fill a vacant Council seat. In a court ruling, the Ontario Superior Court ruled that the pre-appointment of Elaine Moore was illegal.
In addressing the complaint against Mayor Brown, the Integrity Commissioner wrote, “Accordingly, we found there to be no reasonable grounds to believe that a contravention of ‘another Act’ (Canada Elections Act) occurred. Nor did we obtain evidence to substantiate the allegation that the Mayor contravened the Brampton Code of Conduct by having his staff work on his CPC Leadership campaign on City-paid time.”
Mayor Brown responded to these findings by noting, “The Integrity Commissioner has cleared me of what has now been proven to be false allegations that I was using municipal staff on the recent CPC leadership campaign. I am vindicated now that the Integrity Commissioner has ruled that I did nothing wrong, the Mayor continues, “The allegations came from a bogus story from Rebel Media, and pushed by Elaine Moore, and both should apologize to all the City staff they smeared with false allegations.”
