At a January 12th general committee meeting, Peterborough City Council received four reports from Peterborough’s Integrity Commissioner Guy Giorno for information, including one concerning former public library CEO Jennifer Jones’ against Ashburnham Ward Councillor and 2026 Mayoral candidate Keith Riel.

The accusations against Keith Riel evaluated by Giorno in the report relate to the councillor’s behaviour in meetings as well as in his email correspondence with staff over the course of the 2024 summer, particularly relating to encampment evictions during the week of July 26th. In emails revealed by Giorno, Riel complained of City staff’s “cloak and dagger mentality” and general lack of transparency regarding eviction proceedings on a Wolfe Street encampment, comments which an unnamed employee  argued were unnecessarily disparaging.

Internal staff correspondence unveiled by Giorno’s investigation paints a picture of the culture among municipal managerial staff not totally dissimilar to Riel’s characterization, however: in one instance, Jones can be seen giving councillors discussions points to follow in their response to public inquiries about the July 2024 evictions, including a request to “not directly associate the [opening of a] temporary shelter [at the Morrow Building during the same week as the Wolfe evictions] with the enforcement activities.”

Giorno’s legal argument also comes to the conclusion that while Riel was not entitled to delicate information about the enforcement proceedings on Wolfe Street, despite his role as the City’s Community Services Co-Chair, the City’s Chief Administrative Officer (CAO) Jasbir Raina as well as commissioners overseeing the case (such as Jones at the time) could share such information with him at their discretion. Despite requests to do so from Riel and his co-Chair Alex Bierk, they elected not to.

Giorno concluded that while Riel’s behaviour was objectionable and would be considered a violation of the City Council Code of Conduct if it was repeated, it did not currently comprise a violation of the Code of Conduct.

Opening discussions on the Integrity Commissioner’s (IC) report concerning himself, Riel made his grievances clear.

“The Integrity Commissioner Guy Giorno has fully exonerated me,” he said. “That independent finding matters for me, personally, and more importantly, for public trust and for the ability of an elected official to do their job without fear of retaliation, reputation and harm.”

Councillor Riel did not mince words on the nature of the report’s allegations.

“This has been an effort by some senior staff to discredit me and to stymie my work,” Riel explained.

“The process has now spoken clearly, the allegations were unfounded. I take no satisfaction in this outcome. My [objective] has never been conflict. My objective is and remains to serve the people who elected me, to ask difficult questions, to advocate for residents and to share accountability in how this city is governed.”

“This finding should also serve as an opportunity to reflect on the culture at City Hall,” said Riel. “Healthy governance depends on accountability, open dialog and respectful disagreement. Independent oversight, critical questioning are not threats.”

Town Ward Councillor Alex Bierk and Monaghan Ward Councillor Matt Crowley followed suit, pushing to enact one of Giorno’s recommendations from this report.

Given that a significant portion of Riel’s disagreements with managerial City staff involved the scope of his role as portfolio co-chair, Giorno concedes in his report that “The Portfolio system perhaps blurs the line between the role of Councillors and the role of the staff.” He then recommends that council consider a reevaluation of the Portfolio Chairs by-law to clarify those roles, particularly as they relate to access to information.

“The takeaway,” Bierk told the horseshoe, “I think, for us, maybe it's something for the next term of council to consider looking at, is the Portfolio Chairs By-law… so that something like this doesn’t happen again.”

Prompted by Councillor Crowley, City Solicitor David Potts affirmed the recommendation.

“Council is best served by mitigating all risk of any confusion at all,” said Potts. “I recommend that someone make a motion to refer the By-law to me… for a review and recommendations… in order to ensure that it cannot be said to be confusing.”

With that, the IC report concerning Councillor Riel was received for information with the unanimity of council except for Riel himself, who abstained due to his obvious interest in the matter.

The issues raised by Riel would come back at the end of the meeting, however.

First, Councillor Crowley put forth a motion to implement Giorno’s recommendations, bolstered by Potts’ support, which carried unanimously.

Then, Riel himself took a stand to address a letter obtained by the Peterborough Examiner where Peterborough Police Services (PPS) Chief Stu Betts accused him of “anti-police bias” for his opposition to a nearly ten percent increase to PPS’ budget requested by the PPS board, as well as attempts to cap a $91.9 million two-site police station expansion-renovation project during 2026 budget deliberations.

Betts’ letter included speculation about Riel’s, in Betts’ words, “performative” personal commitment to public safety and accused him of holding “contempt” for the police.

“If this is a rogue letter from the police chief,” Riel began, “I ask for the Police Board to investigate, discipline up to and including termination of employment and a letter of apology to me.”

“Nothing in the Community Safety and Policing Act grants the chief of police the authority to publicly reprimand or demand retraction from an elected councillor for how they characterize budget pressures, policy trade offs or government concerns,” Riel reminded. “Robust disagreement in public is not misinformation. It is democracy.”