In a scene straight out of President Donald Trump's White House, a group of Brampton councillors angry over recent coverage critical of their leadership, attacked the freedom of the press, proposing a motion to scrutinize the media's questioning of elected officials.

Days after a Guardian article critical of the lack of work by certain veteran councillors on key transit files was published, those same councillors reacted angrily, claiming biased and inaccurate reporting.

Coun. Gael Miles, the subject of a number of recent Guardian articles, moved a motion Wednesday, May 31, intended to quiet media scrutiny of elected officials. The motion before Wednesday’s committee meeting states: “copies of all media inquiries received by the mayor, members of council and staff be posted to the city website, along with their responses provided.” The proposed motion, headed for a council vote on June 14, also includes a provision that “all future committee of council and council agendas include a section for members of council to speak publicly on recent media stories which relate to council decisions or issues that may impact the City of Brampton.”

“There is nothing that makes me angrier than injustice and I think the City of Brampton is not being served well by the kind of media reporting that we are having,” Miles said during the committee meeting.

She has been heavily scrutinized over the years for her support of a now defunct community agency she used to head before it was taken over by her husband. It had received hundreds of thousands of taxpayer dollars while failing to provide key financial details, such as how much of the public funding went to her husband's undisclosed salary. Council was asked two years ago to excuse more than $90,000 owed to the city by the organization.

In recent weeks, The Guardian has also questioned Miles for her push for a taxpayer buyout of a money losing golf club owned by a development group that has donated substantially to her political campaigns and $600,000 to a charity she founded, as well as $30,000 to the now defunct agency her husband ran. She declined to answer a number of questions the Guardian sent her about the golf club deal. Under her own motion, which was referred to staff for a report before a possible council vote later in June, all of the questions she has declined to answer, seeking key details of how the golf club deal is being handled outside of the public's eye, would be published on the city's website.

Meanwhile, other council members including Mayor Linda Jeffrey, suggested elected officials were about to embark on a dangerous path by trying to control the media in a Big Brother-style fashion currently being witnessed south of the border, as Trump and his supporters have lashed out against the media's routine reporting on a string of controversies that have bogged the presidency.

“The freedom of the press is a key pillar of our democracy, regardless of whether or not we like what is being written,” Jeffrey said. “The media needs to be able to do their jobs freely so they may inform the public of what is happening at their city hall.”

Regional councillors, opposed to Miles’ motion, called the move “childish.”

“This is nothing more than the government overstepping its boundaries. Telling people they don’t know what they are doing, and that the government needs to hold their hand? Our residents are smarter than that,” Gurpreet Dhillon said.