The mayor of a southern Ontario city and five out of six municipal councillors are condemning the last member of the group for appearing on an online show they say promotes hate speech and extremist views, arguing her increasingly controversial history has “created an environment of fear and intimidation” on council.
In a scathing press release published on Wednesday, Pickering Mayor Kevin Ashe and the rest of Coun. Lisa Robinson’s fellow council members sounded the alarm over her recent appearance on the Kevin J. Johnston show hosted on Rumble, which they call “a far-right video platform.”
They said the show host called the council members “pedophiles” and “Nazis” and said they “deserve a baseball bat to the face” among other pointed remarks, asserting Robinson smiled or nodded instead of refuting Johnston’s comments.
“It was hateful, it was misogynist, it was racist,” said Mayor Kevin Ashe in a phone interview. “For many of us on council, this is really the final straw.”
The statement from the mayor and the five councillors said Robinson’s participation in the show is “irresponsible, unethical, and dangerous,” and implies her support for extremist views they say are at odds with the city’s values of inclusivity and respect.
“When you think she can’t go lower, she goes lower,” Ashe said.
