Two solitudes: Councillors seek more respect, opponents want change

The rally against development last Tuesday outside town hall brought out scores of residents aiming to have their voices heard. 

Some silently held up signs while others yelled and chanted, a few hurled insults and slurs at councillors who were entering the building. 

In an effort to move forward after the protest and months of anger directed at council, The Lake Report asked those who were at the protest — both participants and those who were its targets — how the community can move forward.

Coun. Maria Mavridis isn’t sure what to do, but emphasized residents need to learn what is and isn’t OK to say and do during a rally.

“Everyone has a right to protest. Everyone has a right to speech,” Mavridis said in an interview.

“But people are really crossing lines.”

Mavridis said she and the other councillors knew the rally was happening beforehand, but weren’t expecting some of the behaviour a few residents exhibited.

While she was walking from her car to the council chambers, Mavridis said people yelled profanities at her.

“One man came up to me, brushed my shoulder and said ‘fat ass.’ “

When she turned around and confronted him, the resident doubled down on the name-calling, she added.

One of the more disturbing interactions Mavridis had was with a resident who yelled a racial slur toward her. 

“There was a line that was crossed. Racial slurs are uncalled for,” she said.

Mavridis said she doesn’t know what the next steps are for the town’s residents and municipal leaders, but hopes people can see that this behaviour is wrong. 

“I suppose we (the councillors) have to stick together because we always have. Since day one, none of us have felt the same way: we argue, we all have different views,” she said.

“But we respect each other.”

There isn’t much the council can do beyond this point — besides teaching people kindness, she said.

“Specifically, the Parliament Oak vote is done,” she said, explaining that a two-thirds vote would be needed to reopen the issue. 

Rally organizer Karen Taylor-Jones’s next goal is to gather more information on what can be done to stop developments residents don’t want from becoming a reality, she said.

“I’ve been in touch with (Premier Doug) Ford’s office and various different heritage places. I’m just doing research to see if there’s any sort of loopholes we can get through” she said. 

After having conversations with MPP Wayne Gates and MP Tony Baldinelli, Taylor-Jones said gathering information from everyone will take time, but she is dedicated. 

She even took a phone call with developer Benny Marotta, who said a hotel is going up at Parliament Oak as well as at the Randwood Estate.

“He offered me Parliament Oak for $20 million. Wasn’t that big of him?” Taylor-Jones said. 

The rally organizer said she doesn’t think council will take any steps to change the outcome of the Parliament Oak vote, but she is prepared to take her concerns to higher places.

“I don’t know anything about the Ontario Land Tribunal yet — but I’m learning,” she said.

Regarding the behaviour of rally participants, Taylor-Jones said she condemned the inappropriate behaviour of those who yelled insults and slurs, but said it was only two men who did so.

“The whole was blamed for two men. Those two men blew it all for us,” she said. 

Taylor-Jones added that, before the rally, she spoke with people on the phone who expressed extreme anger and might have leaned toward violence. She told them to stay home.

“We were really ridiculed as a group when let’s face it, 85 per cent of us were between 50 and 90 (years old),” she said. 

Chrys Kaloudis, a former urban design committee member, was at the rally and supports residents standing up for their beliefs, but thinks there is a gap in information regarding how residents should communicate and vocalize their questions and issues.

Kaloudis herself was invited to a one-on-one meeting with Coun. Erwin Wiens when trying to gain some clarity regarding council decisions. 

She said one of her main questions was around land use and how the Parliament Oak parcel of land was zoned for community use. 

Kaloudis commended Wiens on his invitation to meet and talk, but did say she finds councillors to be either intentionally or unintentionally vague when presenting information on how residents can help themselves fight back against unwanted development or converse with councillors in a productive way.

In terms of gathering the information to do so, Kaloudis said it depends on what one is looking for. 

“A lot of this stuff is in the public realm, in those meetings on the town website. But what they’re not going to get is some of the background. The sort of process and structural procedures of how we got to this point,” she said.

Kaloudis said there is a disconnect within council regarding timelines that must be observed when processing things and when resident feedback is observed.