Peterborough city council has voted unanimously on a motion to require all councillors and city staff to receive anti-racism, diversity, equity, and inclusion training, as well as to amend council’s code of conduct and the city’s strategic plan.
The motion, brought forward by councillor Alex Bierk and amended by councillor Kevin Duguay when city council met as general committee on Monday night (January 12), was in response to the tabling of a report by the city’s integrity commissioner Guy Giorno on Mayor Jeff Leal’s use of an anti-Black racial slur during a guest lecture at Trent University last March.
In his report dated December 22, 2025, Giorno addressed nine complaints — including from the Trent Central Student Association and the Afrocentric Awareness Network of Peterborough — that the mayor had breached the code of conduct by using the N-word when referring to the language of former U.S. president Lyndon Johnson.
“Lyndon Johnson was an FDR New Dealer,” Leal said during his lecture at Trent University. “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.”
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.
In his report, Giorno suggested council may wish to amend council’s code to address conduct to prohibit the use of the N-word, and also may wish to ask city 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.
Bierk’s motion also addressed both of Giorno’s suggestions by directing city staff to amend the city’s 2023-2050 strategic plan and to review and amend council’s code of conduct to “explicitly prohibit the use of racial slurs — including but not limited to the N-word — regardless of context or circumstance.”
In his report, Giorno included a detailed statement he received from Mayor Leal about the incident, in which the mayor explained he was unaware that it was no longer unacceptable to speak the N-word aloud in academic settings.
“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.
At Monday night’s meeting, councillor Bierk introduced his motion by saying the use of the N-word is never acceptable regardless of the circumstances.
“Some have sought to minimize this incident by focusing on context and intent,” he said. “The harm caused by this word does not depend on context. It does not depend on whether it was quoted or directed at someone. The harm is real, it is documented in the report, and it is felt deeply by members of our community.”
“We have a choice. We can close ranks, minimize, and move on, or we take responsibility tonight and make changes.”
In her comments on the motion, councillor Joy Lachica says she was “shocked and dismayed” on behalf of the complainants by the integrity commissioner’s findings, and zeroed in on the mayor’s statement in the report that he was unaware that it was unacceptable to use the N-word.
“Not being aware is indicative of a need for education as the motion recommends,” she said, adding that the outcome of the report does not “truly acknowledge the centuries-long history of dehumanizing, vilifying, violating, harming, and killing of Black people” and that the use of the N-word “is a tool of racial oppression regardless of intent or context.”
After councillor Keith Riel said he himself welcomed the opportunity to be educated, councillor Kevin Duguay proposed an amendment to Bierk’s original motion, which recommended training only for councillors and senior city staff, so that the training would be provided to councillors and to all city staff.
“Many of our frontline staff have more regular interface with community members,” Duguay said. “They quite often could be in positions, and dealing, in a more public-facing manner.”
Duguay asked city CAO Jasbir Raina if council would be contravening any procedural by-law by requiring all city staff to receive the training, and Raina confirmed there would be no issue.
After councillor Lesley Parnell asked for clarification on past motions by council related to the city’s actions on Indigenous truth and reconciliation, councillor Bierk said his motion was focused specifically on anti-Black racism and reflected a request made by the Trent Central Student Association.
All councillors, including Mayor Leal, then voted unanimously in favour of Bierk’s motion as amended by Duguay.
The motion was then included as an amendment to the original motion to receive the integrity commissioner’s report, which council voted 10-0 in favour of, with the mayor recusing himself from that vote due to a pecuniary interest as he was the subject of the report.
