Brampton wards 7 and 8 Coun. Charmaine Williams isn’t backing down after being hit with integrity commissioner complaints by fellow councillors over her use of lawn signs in violation city’s sign bylaws.

On Tuesday (Oct. 28), Williams issued a media release stating her intention to resume her “Please Slow Down” lawn sign campaign in school zones first launched in the summer despite an ongoing ethics probe by integrity commissioner, Muneeza Sheikh.

“I have written to the Integrity commissioner to let her know that I will no longer suspend my Please Slow Down campaign,” said Williams, adding a seven-year-old girl who was hit by a car in her ward on Oct. 21 prompted her to resume the campaign.

“I believe the two councillors involved had the best of intentions in making their complaint. But, there is a famous saying that ‘the road to hell is paved with good intentions'. I am not interested in naming them, I just wanted my constituents to know why my office suspended the campaign,” she added.

Neither of the two councillors Williams' referred to have been identified as integrity commissioner complaints are kept confidential until a ruling is issued.

In August, Williams handed out hundreds of yellow lawn signs to residents in her wards after being informed by the city’s bylaw department that such signs were in violation in January, after she handed out similar signs as part of her anti-cannabis-store campaign.

She was also told both she and residents placing the signs on their properties could be subject to fines.

“The ‘slow down’ signs … are not allowed under the current sign bylaw. Such signs may be temporarily used by people holding up the sign for a short period of time. However, the placement or posting of any kind of such signs are not allowed under the bylaw,” the city told the Brampton Guardian in August.

“If the City receives a complaint about the signs, an enforcement officer will be dispatched to investigate and gather evidence. In line with the sign bylaw, charges could be laid on both the person causing the sign to be displayed and the person that allowed the sign to be posted,” it added.

The first-term councillor disagrees with the bylaw and staff’s interpretation of it. Williams believes the signs are allowed under the current rules as long as they're not placed on public boulevards or within a certain distance roads and sidewalks. She has also offered to attend court and pay any fines residents may receive for the signs.