A councillor for the City of Cambridge is facing consequences for posting a meme on social media earlier this year. An integrity commissioner investigation was launched after Councillor Adam Cooper posted an image on his personal Facebook account on Jan. 22. The image featured a person with blue hair along with the text, “He took my pronouns! I have to live in reality now!” The image was published around the same time that U.S. President Donald Trump signed an executive order stating the U.S. government would only recognize a person’s sex as male or female. “Our office received a very large number of communications about the Facebook post in January and February of this year,” Integrity Commissioner John Mascarin explained during a council meeting on Tuesday. “The majority of the communications denounced the Facebook post and/or the actions of the councillor that followed it and urged us to take action. Such action even included removing the member of council from office, which we have no authority to, and which council has no authority to do.” Mascarin noted they did receive some emails, telephone calls and voicemail messages in support of Cooper. Advocates were quick to voice their displeasure shortly after the image was posted. Eric Bolton, one of the founders of Grand River Pride commented on the post. “Dude … you’re a city councillor. You should be better than this,” Bolton wrote. Cooper responded, “I’ll proudly represent reality.” The post, and the related comments, were eventually deleted but a formal apology was never made. Bryan Causarano-Bolton, one of the other founders of Grand River Pride, was one of 10 people who submitted a formal complaint to the integrity commissioner’s office. “I think that there’s this conversation of freedom of speech and people forget that doesn’t exclude you from consequence,” Causarano-Bolton told CTV News on Tuesday ahead of the meeting. “If you say things that hurt others, those people are able to stand up in this country and have justice.” “In general, if somebody is doing something that I think is inappropriate, I say something,” Causarano-Bolton said. Meanwhile, Cambridge Mayor Jan Liggett also spoke up about the meme earlier this year, acknowledging that it had caused distress and pain to families and members of the community. “It does not represent council nor the corporation’s thoughts on gender fluidity,” she said in a statement to CTV News after the image was posted. Integrity commissioner investigation The investigation happened over the course of several months. One of the investigators, Meghan Cowan, spoke at the meeting on Tuesday and noted that Cooper believed his post was protected under his right to freedom of expression. “Freedom of expression is not an absolute, unfettered right.” Cowan said. “The right is limited by reasonable restrictions prescribed by law that can be justified in a free and democratic society, including by requirements to protect the rights and freedoms of other persons, such as those imposed by standards set out in municipal codes of conduct.” “With respect to the councillor’s Facebook post, we found that the meme was not sensitive to the wider social conversation happening at that time about the inclusion of people who use pronouns such as they/them to self-identify,” Cowan continued. “The meme was interpreted by many people who viewed it as mocking individuals who chose to identify themselves by pronouns other than she/her or he/him.” The investigation determined that the Facebook post demeaned a specific group of people and did not uphold Cambridge’s Code of Conduct requirements that members of council conduct themselves with decorum, courtesy, respect and decency at all times. However, investigators said Cooper’s comments on the post, including his responses to advocates, did not contravene the Code of Conduct because he was characterizing his position on the matter. The report also noted that, at the time the final report was completed, Cooper had not apologized for the post or any harms it may have caused. The integrity commissioner recommended that council formally reprimand Cooper and suspend his pay for 10 days. “…the most hurtful, hateful experience to go through” Cooper addressed his fellow council members and the people assembled within council chambers before council voted on the recommendations. “Surprise, surprise, I object to [the recommendations],” Cooper said. He admitted to posting the meme on social media, but said he didn’t make it. “Lots of people have shared it. It used humour to bring attention to it. Some people don’t like to be questioned or to have humour applied to it. I get that,” he said. He claimed there was a campaign against him following the post. “I can only say it was the most hurtful, hateful experience to go through. The things that were sent to me – things that somebody shouldn’t hear. If we’re going to talk about whether the things I said were hurtful, we need to talk about what was said to me because there’s a lot of hypocrisy going on here and this is just the truth. Don’t shoot the messenger. This is what happened,” he said. “People went after my family. They went after my friends. They went after anybody that I even remotely did business with. The came at us with the most hateful accusations you can imagine. Ones I’m not even going to repeat here. I wonder where the outrage was then.” Cooper was noticeably emotional as he continued his statement. “What this mob tried to do to me, to my children, to my family – that mob that came after me holds no moral superiority to be standing on any kind of soapbox, preaching to me or anybody else. I will not take lessons in moral decency from any of the hateful mob that came after me and continues to do so.” He called the experience an unnecessary witch hunt. “People that do this are not heroes. They’re bullies that wish to silence anybody they disagree with,” he said. Cooper said he has spoken to members of the LGBTQ2+ community who have expressed concerns with how the issue has been handled. “The message I heard loud and clear, numerous times, was that they don’t represent [the LGBTQ2+ community]. They think they do, but they don’t. Because the people that have experienced this over the years have lived with discrimination for decades, and they know the damage that’s being done to everything that’s been achieved. It’s why so many people that used to look at the Pride Flag with love and joy now, unfortunately, look at it with disdain because it represents an authoritarian suppression of free speech and a demand to comply with ideologies.” He then said he wants to be in a community where people can disagree, but still respect each other at the end of the day. “I’m going to continue speaking to things that some people find uncomfortable, but need to be said. I’m going to keep doing that. That’s what I do. I’m not going to stop. And if people attack me and claim that I’m hateful, so be it,” he concluded. Consequences When council was debating whether to accept to recommendations from the integrity commissioner’s report, one councillor spoke up against the idea of docking Cooper’s pay. “We can take the pound of flesh, but that pound of flesh is not going to help anybody,” Councillor Mike Devine said. “What we need to do is change the attitude and the thought process.” Devine previously went through sensitivity training for an incident and he said the process was eye-opening. “I don’t think handing out a speeding ticket is going to help anybody, because that’s what the [financial] penalty is, in my way of thinking – a speeding ticket. We need to change the attitude. We need to give training, and I believe that will help,” he said. “Two weeks pay is not going to correct the issue,” Devine added. Councillors voted on several motions regarding what Cooper’s consequences should be. However, after multiple motions were defeated, council settled on a formal reprimand and a requirement that Cooper complete sensitivity training within three months.
