{"id":4792,"date":"2013-12-04T13:18:27","date_gmt":"2013-12-04T18:18:27","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/?p=4792"},"modified":"2013-12-11T13:24:26","modified_gmt":"2013-12-11T18:24:26","slug":"morris-councillors-testify-as-buck-trial-winds-towards-a-close","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/morris-councillors-testify-as-buck-trial-winds-towards-a-close\/","title":{"rendered":"Morris, Councillors testify as Buck trial winds towards a close"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Brock Weir<\/strong><\/p>\n

Former Aurora mayor Phyllis Morris and members of the last term of Council continue their testimony this week as Councillor Buck\u2019s trial draws to a close. <\/p>\n

Lawyer John Mascarin was the first witness to take the stand for the defence. He told the court Wednesday he was asked initially to review two specific entries on Councillor Buck\u2019s blog and advise if he had any concerns \u201cwith respect to a possible contravention\u201d of Aurora\u2019s Code of Conduct and procedural bylaws. <\/p>\n

Although he said he was given direction to look at the two blog posts in question, he thought it was \u201cappropriate\u201d to look at further blog posts on the website as well as comments made elsewhere to provide some \u201ccontext.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI provided my complete opinion and I was asked a number of questions with respect to it, and that would have included a summary of my findings, my rationale, and then my conclusions,\u201d said Mascarin. \u201cI had numerous concerns with the blog postings and possibly having contravened various provisions of the Code of conduct.\u201d <\/p>\n

Directed to blog posts by defence lawyer David Boghosian, Mascarin said there was \u201ccertainly derogatory language\u201d in the passages.<\/p>\n

Upon review of similar posts, he said he made recommendations on how to rectify the situation before proceeding further. A letter was produced to Morris, Evelina MacEachern, and Bob McRoberts before being sent to Buck asking her to apologise for her claims, but McRoberts suggested it should be toned town to \u201cmake it somewhat more palatable\u201d for Buck. <\/p>\n

\u201cThere is a concern with the enforcement of the Code of Conduct that there could be damage to reputation,\u201d said Mascarin. \u201cCouncil had been very clear in instructing me it wanted to maintain the high road. Therefore, my letter as drafted to Ms. Buck was given privately and delivered by Councillor McRoberts.\u201d<\/p>\n

In all, the Court heard Mascarin charged $47,125 in all to look into this matter as he was \u201cvery hands on\u201d with the file combing through blogs and videos of Council meetings. <\/p>\n

These costs, however, were at issue during cross examination by Kevin MacDonald, lawyer for Buck. MacDonald questioned the veracity of Mascarin\u2019s cost logs in while many issues were itemized, things were vaguer on which blogs were reviewed (and when) in relation to when he gave his opinion.
\n\u201cIt sounds to me like you were biased because you only looked at one side of things,\u201d said MacDonald. <\/p>\n

Countered Mr. Mascarin: \u201cI strove to provide the correct information to my client.\u201d<\/p>\n

While MacDonald said the correct opinion \u201cwas the one [Councillors] wanted\u201d, Mascarin maintained it was given objectively. Putting every item reviewed as a docket entry would take up too much time, said Mascarin. <\/p>\n

Earlier, MacDonald argued it was \u201crisky\u201d for Council to publish a legal opinion from an outside lawyer before a complaint had been thoroughly reviewed by an integrity commissioner. This was a view Mascarin disputed. He also disputed claims that Morris was more concerned about blog posts criticising herself. <\/p>\n

Following Mascarin\u2019s testimony, it was time for members of the 2006 \u2013 2010 term of Council to take the stand. As she was one of three Council members tasked with reviewing the complaint against Buck in addition to Morris and MacRoberts, MacEachern was up first. <\/p>\n

MacEachern characterised her time on Council as two halves of a whole. When everyone started, she said, they were \u201cexcited and working together as a team\u201d although no Council ever agrees entirely all the time. Eventually, she said, Buck became the \u201clone vote\u201d against the majority. <\/p>\n

Increasingly, she added, Buck\u2019s blog posts became a concern after they became less about \u201ccommentary around issues\u201d to \u201cpersonal attacks on members of the community, members of staff, and members of Council.\u201d <\/p>\n

\u201cCouncil needed to do something,\u201d she said, paraphrasing a conversation and concerns shared with Neil Garbe. \u201cIf we, as a Council, didn\u2019t deal with this matter, we could be losing one or more senior staff persons. The comments, as I saw them, were very serious and it was a matter I thought could potentially have some serious consequences to the Town and the Community. I felt we needed to show staff that Council didn\u2019t support what was being done.\u201d<\/p>\n

Under cross-examination, MacEachern said she couldn\u2019t agree with statements made by MacDonald that Buck was a politician with \u201can outstanding record\u201d and \u201creputation for honesty and integrity.\u201d While she said she often agreed with some of her positions, she did not align with Buck\u2019s \u201cmeans of delivery.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI would agree that what happened at the meeting was a very uncomfortable situation and I wish it didn\u2019t happen, but at the same time I think\u2026Mayor Morris did a great job in cutting off the dialogue in a way that addressed everyone\u2019s interests,\u201d said MacEachern on MacDonald\u2019s characterization of the May meeting as \u201coutrageous.\u201d<\/p>\n

As for the statement that was published in the two local newspapers, MacEachern said she didn\u2019t actually give Buck\u2019s reputation thought before it went to press as her overriding concern was \u201crestoring the integrity and show staff we supported them.\u201d<\/p>\n

Similar views were shared by Councillor Wendy Gaertner when she took the stand. Having been at the Council table with Buck for over 10 years she said sometimes they agreed, sometimes they disagreed, sometimes things were said that \u201cweren\u2019t too nice\u201d about her but at the end of the day, \u201cit\u2019s politics.\u201d <\/p>\n

While she said she shared the concerns that the reputations of municipal staff had been put at risk through the blogs, they retained Mascarin to make sure they did everything properly. With his \u201cinformal\u201d letter in hand, Gaertner said she was \u201cfrustrated\u201d it didn\u2019t solve the matter.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe frustrating thing was had [Councillor Buck retracted or apologised] it would have been very simple and none of us would be here today and none of our time would have been wasted,\u201d she said, noting Council had a \u201cmoral\u201d and \u201cobligation under the law\u201d to \u201cmake things right.<\/p>\n

Under cross examination, MacDonald took issue with her characterisation that this was a \u201cwaste of time\u201d, to which she said her words were being \u201ctwisted.\u201d <\/p>\n

\u201cWe have been at this for almost four and a half years,\u201d she said. \u201cA lot of my personal time has been wasted. It hasn\u2019t been pleasant and sometimes it has made me feel sick to read what has been written. I think there are a lot of people in this court who feel the same way.\u201d<\/p>\n

MacDonald contended the true time waster was not taking down and retracting the Councillors\u2019 statement against Buck when they were served with libel notice in 2009.<\/p>\n

As The Auroran went to press on Tuesday, Morris was beginning her second day in the witness stand. On Monday, she contested claims last week made by Aurora resident Peter Storms, a volunteer with the last mayoral campaign of Tim Jones, in which he was defeated by Ms. Morris, that she had \u201cthrown [Councillor Buck] under the bus\u201d at the May meeting. <\/p>\n

Up until that point in 2009, Ms. Morris testified her biggest concerns were comments against Town Staff which had been escalating.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere had been some concerns, but staff had been trying to deal with them on a number of occasions,\u201d she said. \u201cThis wasn\u2019t the first time, but it accelerated at this point. The comments were getting very serious. There were serious allegations of wrongdoing, breach of trust, conspiracy. They are awful things.\u201d<\/p>\n

Boghosian then took her back to claims made by McRoberts earlier in the trial that he believed there might have been a window for him to persuade Councillor Buck to apologise. Had he succeeded, she said, things would have been different.<\/p>\n

\u201cI would have encouraged him to help Mrs. Buck make that apology; I would have held the letter, that\u2019s for sure. I could have asked for more time. I would have done everything in my power to get this resolved. It would have prevented us having to take that final step.<\/p>\n

\u201cI voted [to publish the statement] for the simple reason\u2026I felt it was important we protect our staff and [say] we do trust them and value them.\u201d
\nUnder cross-examination, MacDonald characterised Morris as \u201cirresponsible\u201d for not stepping in during the May 2009 meeting and nipping some of these concerns in the bud. She said she disagreed with his statements that the meeting was \u201coffensive\u201d and against the \u201cprinciples of decency\u201d while he outlined St. Kitts\u2019 relationship with Morris. <\/p>\n

She contended she was merely trying to give the proper opportunity for people to address their concerns while \u201cTrying to diffuse the situation.\u201d
\nWhile MacDonald said she appeared \u201caggressive\u201d in videos presented to the court, she disagreed stating she was \u201ctrying to control a difficult situation.”<\/p>\n

\u201cI was frustrated with what was happening, but I was not aggressive.\u201d<\/p>\n

Going into this week\u2019s cross-examination, at issue was Mascarin\u2019s retention of Toronto PR Firm StrategyCorp in 2009 which he described under cross-examination. <\/p>\n\"Facebook\"<\/a>\"twitter\"<\/a>\"mail\"<\/a>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Former Aurora mayor Phyllis Morris and members of the last term of Council continue their testimony this week as Councillor Buck\u2019s trial draws to a close. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[26],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4792","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-archive"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3D2k4-1fi","publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-08-14 16:25:52","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4792","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4792"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4792\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4792"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4792"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4792"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}