A standoff between a South Bruce Peninsula councillor and the rest of council appears to be heading to court.
Craig Gammie was removed by police from Tuesday's council meeting and charged with trespassing after the second confrontation between Gammie and his fellow councillors in a week.
VIDEO: OPP removing Coun. Craig Gammie from South Bruce Peninsula council chambers. pic.twitter.com/pI8ES2OjQp
— Jordan MacKinnon (@jordanmackinnon) May 19, 2015
Gammie was handcuffed and removed from a closed session last week after refusing an order from Mayor Janice Jackson to stop typing notes on his laptop during the confidential discussion.
Gammie read a prepared statement at the beginning of Tuesday's meeting, before refusing to apologize for the incident last week, only offering an apology for using profane language during the dispute.
Jackson says the procedural bylaw requires Gammie to apologize to council and for council to accept that apology before he could return to the council table. The profanity apology offered by Gammie was rejected by council on a 0-4 vote.
Gammie says he plans to fight the trespassing charge and will be speaking to his lawyer regarding legal action aimed at being able to resume sitting at council meetings.
He says he did not break any rules because the procedures say councillors can take notes during closed sessions, as long as they are destroyed at the end of the meeting.
"It is wrong. It is absolutely wrong what Mayor Jackson has done and it's a shame it has to go to court to correct it because it's going to cost the people a lot of money and deprive the people of their decision [to elect him] during the election. This is an affront to democracy. This is a failure of democracy," says Gammie.
Jackson says Gammie broke two provisions in the procedural bylaw, including use of a recording device during a closed session, which includes laptops.
She described the situation as a "gong show" and hopes Gammie decides to fully apologize, rather than take the issue to court.
"He's already created an embarrassment for this council and now he's going to cost the taxpayers money. As long as he understands that losing [in court] like that, he's going to have to pay court costs and you know, it's just going to further embarrass the municipality as a whole," says Jackson.