Content Warning: The following story details the extensive discussion of offensive, racist language. Quotes are presented in their authentic form for clarity in respect to what was said during the March 19th incident.

Integrity Commissioner Guy Giorno’s findings on several complaints about Mayor Jeff Leal’s use of a racial slur were made public January 8th, nearly a year after an incident in a Trent University lecture last March where complainants claimed Leal broke City’s Council Code of Conduct.

After investigating into the incident, Commissioner Giorno concluded that Mayor Leal did not contravene the Code, and recommended no remedial action towards the Mayor at this time. While Giorno states how "the N-word is an odious, vile, dehumanizing racial slur," he found the Code does not cover incidents of this nature.

Arthur first reported on the Mayor's use of the N-word after he issued a public apology regarding the incident on April 8th, 2025. 

On March 19th, 2025, Leal was invited to give a guest lecture in Steven Girardi’s ADMN-2010H: Management Skills, a business administration course, where he “quoted a historical remark attributed to former US President Lyndon B. Johnson” which “included a racial slur that is deeply offensive and hurtful,” according to his April 8th statement.

In a recording published by Arthur, Leal can be heard saying “Lyndon Johnson was an F.D.R. New Dealer. He came out of the hills of Texas. He used this language that you would never use today, and he talked about poor n****rs and Mexicans that he taught Sunday school to.”

After the lecture in question, students approached Girardi to express discomfort for what Leal said. Leal then issued an apology in through the instructor the week prior to the April 8th public apology.

“I sincerely apologize. Regardless of the context or intent, using that word was wrong. I recognize the pain it carries and the responsibility I have to speak with care and respect. I apologize to Trent students and faculty, to Trent University, and to my community,” Leal wrote in the now-deleted statement. 

On the same day, Trent University released a similar statement, acknowledging that "it is unacceptable to use racist language, regardless of context."

"We affirm that the University prohibits all forms of discrimination, harassment, racism and hate as per our policies,” the statement continued. “We apologize for the harm this caused to our students and recognize that words (racial slurs) can have lasting impacts on racialized students.”

Many, including students present in the lecture and the nine complainants in the IC report (lead by the Trent Central Student Association [TCSA] and the Afrocentric Awareness Network of Peterborough [AANP]) felt that Leal's apology was “insufficient” and “deflected responsibility.” 

“Mayor Leal attempted to minimize his choice of word by claiming he was quoting someone else. However, he was not quoting—at best, he was paraphrasing,” reads the AANP complaint. “His public apology only came after formal complaints were submitted, and even then, it took him three weeks to issue it. This delayed response appears more like damage control than a demonstration of genuine remorse.”

The AANP’s complaint also outlines harm done by the Mayor’s use of the slur, including “perpetuating disrespect towards Black people, undermining safe spaces for Black children and adults, weakening race relations in the community” and “fuelling hate in a city already struggling with racism.”

The TCSA’s own complaint alleges that the Mayor did breach the Council Code of Conduct, seeing as “[t]he use of the N-word is an obvious ‘use [of] indecent, abusive, or insulting words or expressions toward … any member of the public’,” referring to Section 10a, b, and c of the Council Code. 

“In this sense, the Mayor harassed not just a member of the public, but upwards of [200] members of the public, who were present at his lecture; required to be there as the lecture content would be on the final exam,” the TCSA’s complaint reads. “Multiple students have expressed the harm that was caused to them by witnessing this lecture and hearing the Mayor’s use of a racial slur.”

“Furthermore, the Mayor’s false statement compounds this sense of harm and loss of dignity, by failing to understand the effects of his actions, and attempting to justify his racism. The Black community at Trent has been greatly harmed by the Mayor’s actions, and further harmed by his so-called apology.”

According to Commissioner Giorno’s investigation of the complaints, Mayor Leal spoke “to the class in a personal capacity” and “was not speaking to the class as a representative of the City.” Giorno further cited the ADMN-2010 syllabus, which describes the March 19th lecture as “two experienced managers” presenting on “their own viewpoint” on management skills.

“During his career, the Mayor displayed a passion for political history, often quoting from past leaders and drawing comparison to past events,” Giorno writes. “Sometimes, he would complete or correct the historical quotations used by others. His remarks were frequently populated with anecdotes drawn from the political history of Canada, Ontario, the United States, and the United Kingdom.”

However, Giorno could not substantiate whether what Mayor Leal said was a direct Lyndon B. Johnson quote, conceding in a footnote that “there is ample evidence that President Johnson used the N-word.” He remains unable to confirm that “President Johnson said what was attributed, exactly when, exactly how, and in the exact context, suggested.”

In that same footnote, Giorno then presents the closest possible quote to what Mayor Leal said: an excerpt from a speech Johnson delivered to the United States Congress in March of 1965 on the passage of the Voting Rights Act.

“My first job after college was as a teacher in Cotulla, Texas, in a small Mexican-American school. Few of them could speak English, and I couldn’t speak much Spanish. My students were poor and they often came to class without breakfast, hungry,” Lyndon stated. “They knew even in their youth the pain of prejudice. They never seemed to know why people disliked them. But they knew it was so, because I saw it in their eyes.”

In a detailed response given to Giorno as part of his investigation, Mayor Leal further illustrates the “context” of the incident, citing how when invited to give a lecture on leadership, he “developed a theme about how leaders evolve their views based on the circumstances they face.”

“The leaders I discussed were Prime Ministers [Lester B.] Pearson, [Brian] Mulroney, [John] Diefenbaker, and Pierre Trudeau. I also spoke of Premier Bill Davis, and Prime Minister Winston Churchill,” states Leal. “The last person I spoke of was President Lyndon B Johnson, who, I believe, demonstrated the greatest transformation of his views during his tenure,” Leal told Giorno.

After using the slur in question, Leal continued to present “Johnson’s … accomplishments” to demonstrate “how significantly he changed his views during his tenure” and how “Johnson’s evolution of views had a significant and permanent impact on multicultural communities in the United States,” the Mayor states in his response. 

“After the lecture was over, some students approached Professor Girardi and myself to express that they really enjoyed the learning and insight of the lecture,” Leal continues. “I believed the lecture was a success.”

Leal then cites how “a couple of weeks passed” before he learned that students present were upset at the Mayor’s slur use.

“I was heavy-hearted that I had made some students distressed, it certainly was not my intention to be hurtful,” Leal claims. “I realized that it was an error in judgment to use the word itself as I attempted to illustrate Johnson’s rudimentary, crass and racist views at the beginning of his tenure.”

Leal then apologizes again for “upsetting the affected students at Trent and anyone who was impacted in the community at large.”

“I sincerely meant no harm,” he says. “Practices and standards in academic settings change – while I thought that I was meeting the standard when I introduced the quote by saying, ‘He used this language that you would never use today,’ I now understand that I did not meet the current practice and I regret that.”

Leal then mentions former Trent president Leo Groarke’s column in the Peterborough Examiner defending Leal’s use of the slur, where Groarke claims that “we need to understand” a “use/mention distinction” between using or mentioning a slur in an academic setting. 

Regardless of the Mayor giving the guest lecture in “a personal capacity,” Giorno acknowledges “sometimes even personal conduct can affect the interests of the City” in his findings of fact. Giorno also found that despite the Mayor’s “language” being “not directed to, at or about anyone … exposure to the N-word can harm people even if the term is not directed to them.” 

Giorno concludes that the Mayor is “genuinely sorry, apologetic and regretful, that he has learned from the incident, and that it will not recur.”

As for allegations that the Mayor’s slur use breached the Code of Conduct, Giorno concludes that the applicable section does not cover a “one-time use of the N-word, in an academic context, not directed to anyone, but attributed (whether correctly or erroneously) to a historic figure during discussion of how that figure thought and acted.”

Giorno further states that Section 10 a) of the Code “only applies to words directed toward another individual,” Section 10 b) “only applies to speech concerning a real, identifiable individual” and there is no established pattern of harassment that makes Section 10 c) applicable to this incident. 

After considering existing legal precedent, Giorno finds that the Mayor did not breach the Council Code of Conduct.

“To be clear, what occurred on March 19 was not acceptable. Everyone agrees it was unacceptable. The Respondent agrees it was unacceptable. He has acknowledged that, both earlier this year and in this inquiry,” Giorno concludes. “The purpose of this inquiry is to determine whether the March 19 comment, which is universally agreed to be unacceptable, contravened the Council Code of Conduct. It did not.”

Giorno then recommends that Peterbroough City Council consider directing staff to report on the feasibility of the TCSA’s initial recommendation that “the Strategic Plan be amended to include antiracism and race relations as a strategic priority under the Community and Wellbeing pillar.”

Despite widespread calls to resign from complainants and members of the public, the report did not include a recommendation for a vote of confidence or non-confidence against the Mayor, as Giorno found that “the Mayor believed his comment was historically accurate; there is no evidence that his state of mind was different, and his demonstrated passion for political history makes it unlikely that he would knowingly invent an anecdote.”

“A Council vote of confidence or non-confidence in the Mayor, as recommended by some Complainants, is outside the scope of Part V.1 of the Municipal Act,” reads the report. 

It is unclear at this point what other remedial measures could be taken outside of Giorno’s recommendations, aside from a recommendation to amend the Council Code of Conduct to “cover what is currently not covered,” such as by including “a new paragraph 10 d) that reads: ‘use the N-word regardless of context or circumstance.’”

The City of Peterborough and the Trent Central Student Association did not reply for comment at the time of publication. More updates on this breaking story are forthcoming.