BRAMPTON: Brampton City Council has suspended two-time councillor Gurpreet Dhillon – wards 9 and 10 cities and Peel Region – for 90 days and passed a unanimous motion seeking his resignation, following allegations of sexual assault by a woman.
10The action against Dhillon follows after a local salon owner accused him of assaulting her when the two were visiting Turkey as part of a Canada Turkish Business Council delegation in November 2019.
In her complaint to the mayor, the woman said Dhillon forced himself on her while she was in her hotel room in Ankara. The woman met the mayor to play the recording of her encounter with the councillor in her room and show text messages to support her claim.
The mayor asked the city’s integrity commissioner, Muneeza Sheikh who is the watchdog for city councillors — to investigate the allegations. The investigation found the allegations of sexual assault against Dhillon to be true and city council was told to suspend Dhillon, without pay for 90 days.
However, the city council has also asked him to resign. Denying the allegations, Dhillon said
he won’t resign. He said: “I am deeply troubled by the city council’s politically motivated decisions today in response to the integrity commissioner’s flawed report. I have and continue to vehemently deny all allegations against me and have commenced legal action.”
The integrity commissioner said Dhillon did not cooperate with her investigation. He has filed a judicial review of the IC’s report. Dhillon said: “As noted many times in Council meeting, this investigation began without a formal complaint and has been tainted from the start. The numerous inconsistencies in the complainant’s story have never been reconciled. Nor was I afforded due process,” he added.
“At the end of the day, we have a complainant who brought forward evidence that something very wrong happened,” Mayor Patrick Brown told council. The penalties do not affect Dhillon’s role on Peel Regional Council.