The declarations of love are unrelenting, often lewd — but, above all, unwanted.

More than 200 times a constituent has publicly professed his love on Facebook for Toronto Councillor Michelle Holland.

“You are a beautiful woman, Miss Michelle Holland, I love you,” the constituent posted to his Facebook page on Jan. 20. “I give thee pleasure, love, lust, sex, love, teach me please, love you Michelle, angel goddess.”

This unsolicited attention has been accompanied by a stream of mailed cards and notes full of similar “inappropriate” comments and gifts from what appears to be the same constituent for more than a year, Holland told the Star.

“This clearly would make anyone feel uncomfortable,” she said.

Last month, the Star sent a survey to all female city councillors and Toronto District School Board and Toronto Catholic District School Board trustees asking if they have experienced sexual harassment, or were made to feel uncomfortable, on the job.

Eight of the 14 women on council, including Holland, six of the 12 female public school board trustees and one of the eight female Catholic school board trustees responded to the survey.

These female elected officials shared their experiences with the Star in the weeks leading up to the resignations of Ontario Progressive Conservative leader Patrick Brown, Nova Scotia PC leader Jamie Baillie and federal cabinet minister Kent Hehr. All three politicians faced allegations of sexual misconduct.

While none of the women alleged sexual harassment by male elected officials currently in office, the majority have experienced inappropriate behaviour by constituents, and expressed concern about the lack of gender diversity and ongoing gender discrimination in municipal politics.

The experiences of Holland and others point to a deeper cultural challenge of gender inequality, said University of Guelph political science professor Leah Levac, whose research includes female participation in local politics.

“(Constituents) are going out of their way to threaten or make uncomfortable, through sexual innuendo and threats of violence, women who have offered to serve the public in elected office,” she said. “It’s a shocking display of power and dominance, which I find really troubling.”

Holland doesn’t know if she has met the constituent who sends the cards and letters, but she believes he lives in her Scarborough Southwest ward.

“Michelle, please, let me touch you again like in the (Scarborough Town Centre) last week, oh my lovely feeling,” he posted to Facebook on Dec. 30.

On Feb. 1, during a council meeting, he posted, “Michelle, you are being watched, followed by angels, my revenge” and included a link to the live stream video of the meeting.

He has also posted comments about her body, his desire to have sex with her, and his frustration when his feelings aren’t reciprocated.

“Did you enjoy my torture, falling tears, I love you Michelle, life partner,” he wrote on Jan. 12. “I only want you Michelle, please you promised.”

The constituent told the Star in a Facebook message that he writes about Holland in this way because “she is a beautiful woman” and “love is insanity.” He denies sexually harassing her.

“I support what the councillor does for women in business. I’m a very nice person. I am not a (#MeToo),” he said.

Holland increased her home security and reported the constituent to Toronto police, who, she said, “indicated no charges could be laid in the context of what has occurred to date, but they will continue to monitor the situation.”

Toronto police declined to comment on what would need to happen for charges to be laid.

“Investigators would have to look at all the facts of the case, determine if the threshold for a charge is reached and what is the appropriate way to proceed,” Toronto police spokesperson Mark Pugash said.

Sexual harassment (for example, lewd comments made about a person) is not technically a criminal offence, but criminal harassment is, said Toronto defence lawyer Daniel Brown.

“It could very well meet the definition of criminal harassment,” Brown said of Holland’s experience, “which is repeated and unwanted contact with a person after they’ve expressed or indicated they have no desire to have communication and contact.”

If Holland fears for her safety, but a criminal charge is not laid, she could “seek the protection of a restraining order,” Brown said.

When Councillor Mary-Margaret McMahon discovered a website with the bold-faced headline “Spank mob boss Mary-Margaret McMahon” and a corresponding game, she said she wasn’t completely surprised.

“It was horrific, but I thought it was only to serve the purpose of electioneering and slamming the incumbent, although I don’t think you need to stoop to those levels to win an election,” McMahon said.

The website first came to her attention during the 2014 election when she was running for a second term as councillor of the Beaches East-York ward, against the website’s creator James Sears, editor of the publication Your Ward News.

Sears wrote in an email to the Star that it’s “a bit of a stretch” to call the website “generally ‘sexist’ or ‘misogynistic’” because the “spanking game features just her.”

“I openly admit to being sexist,” Sears said. “Sexism is a normal state of mind for a heterosexual male. Men and women are not ‘equal.’”

The website remains up, and McMahon said her strategy has been to ignore it.

More than one constituent has made Councillor Sarah Doucette (Parkdale-High Park) feel uncomfortable, standing too close to her at events or making jokes that were “not quite appropriate,” she said.

“I feel that if I was a man, they wouldn’t be doing that.”

Doucette makes an effort not to be alone with these constituents, bringing a staff member with her to a meeting or event, she said. She has asked a constituent to stop making inappropriate comments and he did.

Councillors who believe a member of the public has acted in a harassing or discriminatory manner towards them while they’re working, can report their concerns through the City of Toronto’s anti-harassment policy, according to the city, which would then investigate.

However, the city has limited power when it comes to addressing concerns councillors have about constituents, said integrity commissioner Valerie Jepson. Neither councillors, nor constituents are considered city employees and therefore aren’t under the control of the city. The nature of a councillor’s role also poses challenges.

“If a member of the public were harassing an employee, the city could maybe do something like move the employee to another office, but with a councillor, you can’t move them to another ward,” Jepson said.

Jepson’s office deals with complaints between councillors, but if a councillor did come to her about experiencing sexual harassment by a constituent, she said she’d “try to act as a resource to help that councillor think about strategies to deal with this type of behaviour.”

Toronto City Council has 44 councillors, 32 per cent of whom are women. Three women sit on the 13-member executive committee. Of the seven standing committee chairs, two are women, a recent improvement, said Doucette, who was first elected in 2010 when there “wasn’t a single female chair of a committee.

“We need to have females in those senior positions. That changes the attitudes of everyone and shows women are doing their job, they’re good at what they’re doing and should be respected,” Doucette said.

Two councillors, including Ana Bailao, said they’ve experienced and witnessed gender discrimination during their time in office.

“There’s a discrepancy. Women councillors have to work a lot harder and be a lot stronger and more assertive than a lot of male councillors,” said Bailao, who has never personally experienced sexual harassment.

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“It is how the media perceives and talks about female and male councillors. Sometimes we say the exact same thing and the male councillor gets (coverage), and the female councillor doesn’t get a peep.”

Trustee Jennifer Arp said she has experienced sexual harassment by someone working in the Toronto District School Board, which made her feel uncomfortable and unsafe. She sought help through official channels and is satisfied with the “professional way” the situation was “resolved.”

“I am still struggling to deal with my own experiences and trauma surrounding that (incident),” Arp said. “I think it has made me stronger and highlights the importance of women talking about sexual harassment and making it bigger than a fringe issue because it’s not a fringe issue.

“For women everywhere, this is a reality.”

If a trustee has a concern about a staff member, the director of education is notified and guides the trustee on how to address the issue, said TDSB spokesperson Ryan Bird.

One female trustee said she was repeatedly called a pig in person and on social media by former trustee Sam Sotiropoulos during the 2010 to 2014 term. She did not want to be named in fear she’d be targeted once again by Sotiropoulos.

At trustee meetings, he’d make barking and oinking noises when she and other female trustees spoke and he’d try to intimidate her to the point she never wanted to be alone with him, the trustee said. While he had no support from his colleagues, he also wasn’t formally reprimanded and his behaviour became normalized, she said. Sotiropoulos wasn’t re-elected in 2014.

Sotiropoulos told the Star these allegations are “complete fabrications” and he “never made barking or oinking sounds during any meetings.” Remarks made on social media or in person referring to female trustees as pigs were “intended as a metaphor (for being stubborn) and nothing more. If they are insecure about their personal appearance, I have nothing do with that.”

The TDSB has since appointed its first integrity commissioner who now handles complaints between trustees, Bird confirmed.

Unlike city councillors, trustees don’t have their own offices or staff. For female trustees, this situation makes them feel vulnerable when they meet with parents in their ward, oftentimes one-on-one, said trustee Marit Stiles.

“Absolutely I’ve had situations where I feel extremely vulnerable and intimidated by men,” Stiles said, pointing to two different occasions when she met with parents and felt threatened — once in a nearly empty café where she thought “nobody else would see” if something happened and on another occasion at a school.

“Men have sat across from me and looked me in the eye very aggressively and made nasty comments that were personal. Their anger was directed at me.

“I’m not easily cowed, but there are times when a man is using his physical size to intimidate me. I know it in my gut.”

TDSB trustees experiencing inappropriate behaviour from constituents are encouraged to contact police, said Bird. As to trustees having their own offices, “The chair is aware of this concern and believes it’s a legitimate one. She has been working to find possible solutions,” he said.

Another TDSB trustee said a male city councillor has on more than one occasion dismissed her attempts to meet to talk about issues in their shared ward, but maintains close relationships with other male elected officials.

“There are many old boys clubs in city politics,” the trustee said. She asked not to be named for fear it would make her work environment worse and impact her candidacy in the upcoming election.

As a Catholic school board trustee, Maria Rizzo said a few weeks back an anonymous caller left her a voice message calling her a c---. In December, she was walking into a public meeting when a male constituent standing nearby told her she should burn in hell.

“Staying silent is a course taken by many women in politics who think if they don’t do anything, it will go away. But it doesn’t,” Rizzo said.

The Toronto Catholic District School Board said if a trustee has a complaint against a constituent, the school administrator will investigate under the respectful workplace guidelines.

Councillor Frances Nunziata said there’s more respect for women compared to when she was elected as York’s only female councillor in 1988, before amalgamation. Two years into her first term, during a committee meeting, a councillor put his hand up her skirt, Nunziata said.

The councillor later apologized for the incident, but then claimed it had been an accident, the Star reported in 1990.

“Men had all the authority and women didn’t,” Nunziata said. “A lot of the councillors were totally against me because I was a woman and I was causing problems for them.”

She said constituents do still make comments about her appearance, but she tells them to stop — “Why the hell would you make that comment to me? That’s disgusting,” she will say.

Now that women are coming forward with stories of sexual harassment, it’s changing the culture, Nunziata said. “Men now are opening their eyes and are more aware then they were before. Everything is changing.”

It’s time for women and men to work together as allies to make “safer and better environments,” Arp said. “It’s about making sure everyone has the opportunity to choose whatever career they want and not have to worry about how they will be treated.”

Samantha Beattie can be reached at samanthabeattie@thestar.ca.

Correction – February 5, 2018: This article was edited from a previous version that misspelled Toronto District School Board trustee Marit Stiles’ given name.

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