A group of protesters gathered outside of town hall yesterday afternoon in support of a petition calling for Mayor Rob Burton to resign over events that took place at a Jan. 29 town council meeting.
The petition -- which says Burton has "shown bias and potential systemic racism" -- has collected over 1,600 signatures since Feb. 1. About 30 people gathered at town hall on Tuesday, demanding the mayor's resignation and looking for him to explain a statement he made during the council meeting.
During that meeting, Burton ruled that a Gaza-related motion from Ward 7 councillor Nav Nanda asking town council to call for "a lasting peace solution, a call for an immediate ceasefire; and release of all hostages” was out of order. He said the motion violated the town's procedural bylaws because the issue was outside of the council's jurisdiction.
That meant that 24 delegations scheduled to present on the topic were denied the opportunity to speak.
Burton explained his decision by noting that, "It also appears that some members of the public may see the meeting about the item as a platform to use to promote hatred and divisive antisemitic views, with the intention to give comfort to Gazans fighting Israel. Delegations tonight appear to be intending to be problematic too."
Read more here: Oakville town council meeting delayed four hours over cancelled Gaza conflict delegations
Petition organizer Lama Aggad said, "Mayor Burton's breach of section 6 of the (Oakville) council Code of Conduct by presumption that delegations planned to use the meeting as 'a platform to promote hatred and divisive antisemitic views' was not just disrespectful but also unfounded, dangerous, offensive and slanderous. This breached the council Code of Conduct as he did not show respect for the registered delegates."
"The petition speaks for itself," Aggad continued. "There are signatures and comments from the Jewish community who doesn’t accept the Mayor’s behaviour. If he genuinely cares about the people of Oakville, he must resign now."
Aggad ran for the Ward 6 seat on town council in the 2022 election. She was defeated by incumbent councillor Natalia Lishchyna.
One of the speakers at the protest was Sabreena Ghaffar-Siddiqui, a professor of sociology and criminology at Sheridan College.
"The language that was used by Mayor Burton was very openly anti-Palestinian racism, Islamophobic, and anti-Muslim, but anti-Palestinian as well," Ghaffar-Siddiqui said in an interview. "What was the most concerning for me was the egregious accusation of antisemitism."
Ghaffar-Siddiqui also referred to Bristol University professor David Miller’s recent win in a case against Bristol University for discrimination: "He was discriminated against for his anti-Zionist views."
"The reason why that sets a precedent is that we now have confirmation from another Western country that to be anti-Zionist is like being anti-ISIS, it’s an ideology, it’s not the same as antisemitism. What Mayor Burton did was he conflated antisemitism and anti-Zionism."
Ghaffar-Siddiqui continued, "Yesterday’s win and that case is just the beginning of what I’m predicting will be the start of cases like that popping up in Canada and at some point Mayor Burton is going to face real consequences for what he said."
The protesters asked for Burton to come out to speak to them, but town staff said the mayor was not in the building.
Staff locked the doors to the front entrance of the building during the protest and Halton Police were on scene to ensure the matter remained civil.
The event ended around 2:30 p.m. and no complaints were filed or disruptions reported.
Mayor Burton has not responded to Oakville News' request for comment on the petition or the protest.
The event was organized by Oakville resident Olla Qita.
Kim Arnott contributed additional reporting to this story.