The City of Peterborough’s integrity commissioner Guy Giorno has cleared Peterborough city councillors Keith Riel and Lesley Parnell and Mayor Jeff Leal after finding none of the incidents submitted by complainants breached council’s code of conduct and, in relation to a complaint against Riel, the member of council–staff relations policy.
The four reports, which were released publicly on Thursday (January 8), will be received by council when it meets as general committee on Monday.
As for why all four reports were released at the same time, in two of the reports Giorno noted “I have moved promptly to complete the remaining reports” after he issued his 55-page May 2025 report that found Mayor Leal contravened council’s code of conduct by bullying and intimidating councillors Joy Lachica and Alex Bierk.
City of Peterborough staff complaint against councillor Keith Riel
In the most detailed report, People and Culture Division v. Riel, 2025 ONMIC 9 (dated December 19, 2025), Giorno reviewed a complaint forwarded by the city’s people and culture division alleging that councillor Keith Riel treated a staff member in the division disrespectfully in relation to the city’s eviction of a homelessness encampment in July 2024 and creation of a temporary shelter.
At the time, Riel was serving as portfolio co-chair for housing and homelessness and was responding to media and public inquiries about the eviction. Riel pressed staff for details on the operation and expressed frustration at not being briefed in advance about the location of the temporary shelter. The staff complainant alleged this amounted to intimidation and a breach of the council-staff relations policy.
Giorno found that, while Riel’s emails to staff included “some hyperbolic and petulant content,” they did not make personal attacks, and hyperbole and petulance along do not contravene the code of conduct or the staff relations policy.
He also found no evidence supporting an allegation that Riel “marginalized” a staff member during a public meeting with local business representatives to discuss issues related to the operation of a shelter in the Trinity Community Centre.
“Had I been able to make a finding that a staff member had been humiliated in this manner, I would have concluded that section 13 (of the code of conduct) was breached,” Giorno wrote.
While dismissing the complaint against councillor Riel, Giorno found some of his emails “disturbing” and cautioned him that he is “on notice that, going forward, the full weight of the policy and the code will apply to any email that treats the staff disrespectfully or unprofessionally or that comments on a staff member’s performance (unless directed solely to the CAO).”
Giorno also found that the city’s portfolio system “perhaps blurs the line between the role of councillors and the role of the staff” and that council may want to consider clarifying expectations around the portfolio co-chairs’s roles, access to information, and staff relationships “given that the managerial and operational responsibilities reside with the city’s staff.”
Complaints against Mayor Jeff Leal’s use of a racial slur
In his second most detailed report, Trent Central Student Association et al. v. Leal, 2025 ONMIC 11 (dated December 22, 2025), Giorno addressed nine complaints that Mayor Jeff Leal breached the code of conduct during a March 19 guest lecture at Trent University where he used an anti-Black racial slur when referring to former U.S. president Lyndon Johnson.
“Lyndon Johnson was an FDR New Dealer,” Leal said during the lecture. “He came out of the hills of Texas. He used this language that you would never use today, and he talked about the poor [N-word plural] and Mexicans that he taught Sunday school to.”
The nine complaints — including from Trent Central Student Association and the Afrocentric Awareness Network of Peterborough, which also included a change.org petition with more than 800 signatures — alleged that the mayor’s use of the slur breached the code of conduct, with most complainants finding the mayor’s apology for the use of the slur “insufficient” and calling for the mayor’s resignation.
While Giorno described the slur as “odious” and said the mayor’s use of the term was “not acceptable,” he found that the code of conduct does not currently apply to speech made in an academic setting where the mayor was not acting in his official capacity. He suggested council may wish to amend the code to address conduct that occurs outside council chambers but affects community trust.
With respect to the calls for the mayor’s resignation, Giorno wrote that an integrity commissioner currently has no authority to recommend a municipal politician be removed from office.
“Any resident is free to call for the mayor to resign but removal from office is not presently a possible outcome of an integrity commissioner inquiry,” he states, noting that the proposed Bill 9, the Municipal Accountability Amendment Act would provide municipal integrity commissioners with the ability to recommend the removal of a municipal politician under certain conditions.
Giorno also included a detailed statement he received from Mayor Leal about the incident, in which the mayor explained that he was unaware at the time that it was unacceptable to speak the word, but that he now understands “the current cohorts of students never say the word aloud.”
“At the time of the lecture, I was not aware of this shift in practice in an academic setting, for me, this does shed light on why some of the Trent students took offence to my direct quote of Johnson,” Leal wrote in part.
In the report’s recommendations, Giorno noted that city council may wish to ask the staff to report back on the recommendation of the Trent Central Student Association that the city’s strategic plan be amended to include anti-racism and race relations as a strategic priority under the community and wellbeing pillar.
Complaints against use of strong mayor powers and public meeting chair Lesley Parnell
In report Re Parnell, 2025 ONMIC 10 (dated December 19, 2025), Giorno dismissed five separate complaints arising from a February 24, 2025 general committee meeting where Mayor Jeff Leal used strong mayor powers to bring forward two by-laws expediting Brock Mission’s proposed transitional housing project at 738 Chemong Road.
Complainants alleged that councillor Lesley Parnell, who was chairing the public meeting under the Planning Act, mishandled procedural matters and curtailed public participation, contravening council’s code of conduct, while others alleged misuse of strong mayor powers and Planning Act deficiencies.
Giorno declined to conduct a formal inquiry, finding that procedural rulings of the chair, the exercise of strong mayor powers, council decisions, and enforcement of provincial planning requirements fall outside the scope of an integrity commissioner. He added that none of the allegations, even if proven, would constitute a breach of the code of conduct.
“In light of my conclusion that nothing alleged amounts to a breach of code and the matter is outside my jurisdiction, and for other grounds set out in this report, I have not initiated an inquiry and will be closing the file,” Giorno wrote.
Political signage complaint against councillor Lesley Parnell
In report Anderson v. Parnell, 2025 ONMIC 5 (dated December 15, 2025), Giorno dismissed a complaint against councillor Lesley Parnell that she attempted to intimidate residents into removing “Save Bonnerworth Park” lawn signs opposing a redevelopment plan for the park.
Giorno confirmed Parnell did ask two residents to remove their signs, arguing the issue had already been decided, but found she did not threaten the residents or use her position as a councillor to influence removal of the signs.
“Freedom of expression belongs to everyone,” Giorno wrote. “In the case of Bonnerworth Park, both sides had the right to express their views freely. Councillor Parnell had as much a right to express herself as did the complainant and the residents with lawn signs.”
Giorno concluded the exchange amounted to persuasion rather than intimidation and did not breach the code of conduct.
However, Giorno added that councillors should “in future be wary about attempting to persuade people to stop expressing themselves.”
