There’s a line, and Peterborough Mayor Jeff Leal crossed it, not once but twice.
That was the common refrain of some 75 people who gathered out front of City Hall Monday (June 9) to voice their anger and disbelief over city council’s refusal to penalize Mayor Leal for breaching council’s code of conduct.
Billed as the “Rally for Integrity,” the protest came one week after council, meeting as general committee, received a joint inquiry report from city integrity commissioner Guy Giorno.
His 55-page report concluded that Mayor Leal twice contravened the code of conduct, first by intimidating councillor Alex Bierk and then bullying councillor Joy Lachica — both incidents related to council discussion around the controversial redevelopment of Bonnerworth Park.
According to the Giorno’s report, 13 Peterborough residents filed separate but related complaints about Mayor Leal for making a threat against councillor Alex Bierk during council’s April 2 general committee meeting on the Bonnerworth Park redevelopment, and by participating in decision-making on the park’s redevelopment when he was not impartial.
While Giornio found that Mayor Leal’s decision-making on the redevelopment didn’t provide any ‘”rivate advantage” for him or his wife, he found his saying “I’ll carve you like a Thanksgiving turkey” to councillor Bierk to be intimidating and, as such, contravened Section 10 of the council code of conduct, which states that each member of council has “the duty and responsibility to treat members of the public, each other Member and staff appropriately and without abuse, bullying or intimidation.”
Following the same meeting, Giorno found Mayor Leal “exchanged words” with councillor Lachica in a city hall corridor, that incident witnessed by others, including city CAO Jasbir Raina, and councillors Gary Baldwin and Bierk. Regarding that exchange, Giorno concluded there was “bullying” on the mayor’s part.
“The incident in the corridor occurred in the context of a power imbalance that is a hallmark of bullying,” wrote Giorno.
With Giorno’s report in hand, council, acting on a motion put forth by Councillor Gary Baldwin, voted 7-3 against penalizing Mayor Leal, thus choosing to neither reprimand him or suspend his pay for 90 days. Only councillors Bierk, Lachica, and Keith Riel voted against that motion.
At Monday’s rally, those three — each dressed head-to-toe in black — made a brief appearance before the start of the regular council meeting, during which a ratifying vote on the decision to not penalize Mayor Leal was held.
“We wore black tonight because there’s a death, and that death is democracy and it’s happening right in there,” councillor Riel said to loud cheers while motioning to inside City Hall.
Urging all present to “remember tonight,” Riel asked that come the 2026 municipal election, people vote “for a council that will look after you.”
VIDEO: Rally for Integrity – Peterborough City Hall (June 9, 2025)
Earlier, rally organizer Danielle Turpin was the first of a number of speakers who expressed their anger, disgust, and general dismay over council’s vote not to reprimand Mayor Leal. She asked three questions, each answered with a resounding “No!” by the crowd.
“Was there any reprimand? Was there suspension of pay? Were there consequences at all?” said Turpin.
“A man, or a mayor, used his power to corner and yell at a woman, a woman councillor, in a hallway in their own workplace. He made her feel trapped, intimidated and afraid. And he gets to carry on as if nothing happened? I don’t think so.”
“On June 2nd, two councillors harmed by the mayor’s actions and behaviors asked for support from their colleagues. They asked for accountability. Instead, their colleagues turned their backs on them. We’re here to tonight to say enough is enough. We have all watched with heartbreak and horror what happens when leaders go unchecked. When power becomes more important than people, when bullying, corruption, and cruelty become normalized.”
Also making a passionate plea for council’s reversal of its decision not to reprimand Mayor Leal was elementary school teacher Jane Braithwaite, a Northcrest Ward resident. She noted she reached out to her councillors, Dave Haacke and Andrew Beamer, to express her concern.
“I said ‘Schools have rules. City hall has protocol. Can you look me in the eye and say that you’re following protocol?’ Then I said ‘You know who won’t be voting for you next year.'”
Before a small sea of waving placards, one featuring a drawn steaming turkey with the words “Seems like Leal is cooked” and another asking “Is council an Old Boys Club?” (with “Boys” crossed out and replaced with “Bullies”), Charmaine Magumbe and Sarah McNeilly also addressed the crowd.
“We were just here a few weeks ago,” recalled Magumbe, a reference to the Mayor Leal’s use of a racial slur during a speaking engagement at Trent University — another misstep that also drew widespread anger and calls for the mayor’s resignation.
“Now, with this latest integrity commissioner report, nothing has been done. The councillors were silent. Just like with the ‘N’ word (incident), they were silent. Only three — Joy, Alex, and Keith — wanted to do something.”
“He (Mayor Leal) was found guilty of bullying Alex. Guilty of yelling at Joy. If that’s not enough, some councillors had the audacity to say Mayor Jeff Leal had suffered enough and he was the victim. The victim here is Alex and Joy who had to endure this toxic behaviour.”
For her part, McNeilly spoke to “a pattern of behaviour from this mayor and from the council that enables him.”
“Tonight is the beginning of people coming together, from multiple issues with this mayor and council, and saying ‘Enough is enough.’ This is the beginning of a resistance that, come October 2026, will see new leadership that has integrity and accountability.”
Prior to the rally, Turpin took a moment to speak with kawarthaNOW, speaking specifically to her motivation for pulling the event together.
“I did this because I was really passionate and, ultimately, quite angry like everyone else on June 2nd,” she said, adding “People have been angry for quite a while about the lack of consultation … concerns with what’s been going on.”
Referencing the erosion of democratic principles south of the border under the Trump administration, Turpin noted people “are scared.”
“This is an opportunity for us to at least have a little bit of control in our own local democracy, and maybe try to stop things before they get out of control.”
Asked for her level of confidence in council overturning its decision not to reprimand Mayor Leal, Turpin admitted to being “hesitantly hopeful.”
“I’m confident our voices are going to be heard. There are ten people speaking to this tonight (before council). I’m hoping they (councillors) took time over the week to think about this. They have an opportunity to make a change and do something different, and set a tone for what council really should be like.”
As it turns out, the hopes of Turpin and other rally attendees were dashed later in the evening when, in a 6-4 vote, city council ratified the June 2 general committee decision not to penalize the mayor for breaching the code of conduct.
Mayor Leal once again recused himself from discussion of and voting on the report, and only councillor Matt Crowley changed his vote from the general committee meeting to join councillors Bierk, Lachica, and Riel in voting against the decision.
Stay tuned for kawarthaNOW’s full coverage of the council meeting, including the public delegations who addressed council prior to the vote.
