A London, Ont., councillor has raised eyebrows after being caught on camera drinking what appears to be a beer during a recent council meeting.
Coun. Sam Trosow attended a council meeting virtually on Sept. 24 as he was out of town, which was streamed live to the public.
About three hours and 20 minutes in, he turned on his camera and indicated he wished to comment as his fellow council members weighed in on the city’s plan.
He then walked away from the camera and returned to his seat, while taking a sip of a frothy, amber-coloured beverage.
In a text, Trosow told Global News that he was out of town, six hours ahead at the time, and can’t recall whether he was drinking a beer or a near-beer.
“That could have been a zero beer but I am not a hundred per cent sure,” he wrote.
While Trosow remains away from the city until Sunday, other council members have heard from members of the public on the matter.
“Well, I didn’t see it in the moment, but after last Tuesday’s council meeting I did have a couple of members of the community reach out to me and in one case, send me a screenshot and say, ‘What is going on here? Why is Coun. Trosow drinking beer during a council meeting?’” Deputy Mayor Shawn Lewis said.
He says that it is not up to members of council to police one another and has directed those who are interested to the integrity commissioner’s office.
“I provided them the code of conduct that they can review,” he said. “I’ve provided them with the integrity commissioner’s contact and it’s really in their hands at that point for the members of the public to decide whether or not they want to move forward with that process.”
Lewis noted that the code of conduct does not explicitly state anything about councillors drinking during meetings but the code of conduct does make mention of councillors’ decorum.
John Mascarin, a Toronto lawyer who specializes in municipal politics, said that it would likely be irrelevant that it was not explicitly stated.
“You would expect a council member who’s attending a formal meeting at which decisions will be made to treat it with the proper modicum of respect. That would include being properly attired, not using any profane language, and likely, most people would say, not consuming alcoholic beverages,” he said.
“So to me, a code of conduct doesn’t have to go to the express degree that it explicitly identifies those types of things, including not having alcoholic beverages at the time of a meeting. You would think that that would be an implied duty of a member of council.”
Lewis is not sure if any complaints have been lodged with the integrity commissioner as it is not normal practice to make members of council aware of complaints lodged against other members of council but Trosow is ready to face the consequences.
“In any event, it was poor judgement and I do understand there will likely be integrity commissioner complaints, and I will be prepared to accept such consequences from that process,” he said. “I also regret that this has distracted from the substance of the crucial debate.”