Councillor Jim Handley is taking a leave of absence from Thorold City Council. He made the announcement at the end of last night’s council meeting, after members voted to suspend his pay for 90 days.
As ThoroldToday reported, Handley is in hot water with the integrity commissioner because of an anti-Semitic post he shared on Facebook.
The image — titled ‘WHO IS RESPONSIBLE FOR THE COVID-19 VACCINE?’ — featured the Star of David and listed 22 individuals, with the word ‘JEWISH’ following each name. Handley posted the image with the caption: “Hmmmmmm! Make me wonder. What’s really going on!”
During last night’s council meeting, the integrity commissioner’s report was on the floor and council members did not hold back in condemning Handley’s actions.
“I found it very disturbing and very upsetting,” said Councillor Nella Dekker. “This is not how we represent our constituents here in Thorold. We’re all adults. We’re supposed to lead by example. This is not leading by example and it is not acceptable by any means.”
“I hope we didn’t offend anyone,” added Councillor Mike De Divitiis. “These views do not represent me. I want everybody to know that. I have a lot of Jewish friends out there. I want to make sure this has nothing to do with me.”
The only person who came to Handley's defence was Councillor Carmen DeRose, who tried to reduce Handley’s pay suspension to one month, but no one else was willing to go along with that idea.
When it came to a recorded vote, everybody — including the Mayor — voted in favour of the 90-day pay suspension, except for Councillor DeRose.
“It was a kangaroo court, simple as that,” Councillor Handley tells ThoroldToday, over the phone. “Freedom of speech is done in Canada. If you've seen my post, I didn't say anything discriminatory about anybody of a Jewish nature. I didn't insult the Jewish faith. I posted people's names.”
He says he reached out to the Jewish community, as well as Facebook and that they had no comments on his post.
Handley believes that the complaint about the post is the result of a personal vendetta.
“I'm 99.9 per cent sure who filed the complaint,” he says. “Because we had a falling out previous to the complaint being filed and I banned them on my Facebook page. I think it's a former politician that did it.”
He also points to a council meeting on February 25, where Councillor De Divitiis said that there are some people in the room “who hate Jim Handley.”
“Well, that's a reason for an integrity commissioner complaint,” says Handley. “How come there’s no complaint against him?”
Handley thinks he’s treated differently from other councillors.
“Anytime any other complaints come forward from the integrity commissioner regarding other councillors, they always came back with no penalty,” he says. “‘Oh, you know, they're still young and that stuff. They really don't know the process yet.’ So we're gonna give them a chance to learn the ropes, but with Jim Handley, ‘Oh you got experience, you've been here too long, you should know better.’”
Councillor Handley says he has decided to take a leave of absence for health reasons.
“I had cancer in 2019 — now I got tumours again,” he says.
Handley did not provide a timeline for when he will return to council.
