Former Brampton integrity commissioner launches judicial review to overturn council's vote on her termination

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Ragini Joshi
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Former Brampton integrity commissioner launches judicial review to overturn council's vote on her termination

In a major development, the former Brampton Integrity Commissioner Muneeza Sheikh has challenged the city council vote following her termination.

Sheikh was ousted as Brampton’s Integrity Commissioner (IC) after a meeting which was held on March 11. According to the report, Sheikh had threatened legal action if she was fired. Reportedly, some of the councillors had questioned her billing practices after they learned that she had billed more than $500,000 to the city in less than three years.

Meanwhile, Muneeza Sheikh reportedly challenged the city council vote to overturn the council’s decision to terminate her contract.

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Brampton Guardian reported that Sheikh also filed an application for a judicial review with the Ontario Superior Court of Justice. She alleged that the council violated the Municipal Act after her contract was terminated.

The application, filed by Sheikh, alleges that the council didn’t have the authority to terminate her contract with a basic majority vote, but the council updated its bylaws allowing the integrity commissioner to be removed with a simple majority vote rather than a two-thirds majority vote.

Sheikh reportedly believes that her termination was a political vendetta. She alleged that it was politically motivated by a bloc of six councillors who boycotted two meetings in February in protest of the city’s “authoritarian dictatorship.”

Those Councillors are identified as Martin Medeiros, Jeff Bowman, Charmaine Williams, Pat Fortini, Doug Whillans and Gurpreet Dhillon.

Earlier this month, the council unanimously approved the Principles Integrity, which also serves as the Region of Peel’s IC, to take over the responsibilities of Brampton’s IC.

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