Patrick Brown was caught on camera entering a hockey arena. But for the Rebel News cameras interrupting him, I think we can all draw a reasonable conclusion that he would have gone ahead and played hockey with his friends, as he had been doing weekly since the end of June.

When the story first broke, I filed an FOI request for all the ice rental contracts at Earnscliffe Arena. The FOI request and response is of course directly accessible on the City of Brampton website, under the Freedom of Information page.

Here is the contract information for the group that had rented the ice on August 5th, between 5 and 6 pm. You will note, this is the date that Patrick Brown left a council meeting to attend to “other municipal business” (ie: go play hockey).

Two observations:

1) This was the Only Contract that had a June booking at all, booked in a group of 8 reservations for the same group of players.

2) The Provincial Stage 2 re-opening rules only allowed indoor recreation for the training of amateur or pro athletes, or to run certain amateur or professional competitions.

Which of course, this was not.

(Yes, I am aware that Brampton Integrity Commissioner listed the applicable date as August 4th, 2020. Note, that Rebel News published its story on August 8th, and described the video as being taken “Last Wednesday” which would have been August 5th – a date rented by the group that had been playing weekly since the end of June.)

I also note that Patrick Brown admitted to the Integrity Commissioner he had been skating weekly since arenas reopened at the end of June.

But arenas didn’t “reopen” at the end of June. They were only open under “Stage 2: Training and competitions for Pros and Amateurs.” That allowed indoor use of facilities for pro or amateur athletes.

Not General Public Shinny.

Please go back and reread the IC’s Report dismissing the Rebel News Complaint.

But as you do, bear in the mind the actual sequence of events, and Rule 1 (e) of the Council Code of Conduct:

*Uphold the Letter and Spirit of the Law*

Patrick Brown was indeed in breach of the Code of Conduct. He was playing hockey indoors weekly between June 30th to August 4th (the date when Brampton actually entered Stage 3); but he was not there participating in training as an amateur or professional athlete. He was playing shinny with his friends. And that was absolutely not a permitted use of indoor facilities.

In other words – by his own admitted facts, we know with an absolute certainty that he was breaking the rules.

And in other words, the Integrity Commissioner focused on the technical wording of the Rebel News complaint, and was willfully blind to the Mayor’s own admission that he had been using the indoor facilities improperly and in breach of the province’s rules, and in breach of the code of conduct.

It has been 17 Months since I filed three unrelated complaints about the mayor and certain other councillors. I look forward to my complaints being dismissed through equally spurious reasoning.