A debate in Brampton council over use of the city’s corporate mail turned into a racially charged exchange at an April 10 meeting, resulting in wards 7 and 8 Coun. Charmaine Williams issuing an apology to her fellow councillors.

“I really do want to apologize to my council members. In highlighting microaggressions and talking about perceived racism, or racism in general, I’m not accusing my council members of being racist. I think my council members are very forward-thinking and in tune with how all members of the community feel,” said Williams, who is a person of colour.

“I will withdraw my letter, because I do not want to make my council members think and feel I am accusing them as such,” she added.

Williams’ mea culpa followed a heated debate after she asked to have a letter she sent to Mayor Patrick Brown and members of council be placed on the public record.

In that letter, Williams said she was the target of racially charged comments on social media as a result of her cash-for-guns idea. She also protested a motion by the city’s governance and council operation committee meeting on April 8, retroactively charging the cost of her most recent mailings to her office expense account, which she felt unfairly singled her out.

“To change the rules to only impact me, I think is discriminatory,” Williams defiantly told council in defence of her actions. “Believe me when I say that retroactively changing a policy because of an unwritten rule would be viewed by some in our community as a form of racial discrimination.”

Her letter and comments were not well-received by fellow members of council, some of whom felt she was accusing them of inciting racism or being racist themselves.

“We’re being accused here, I think,” said wards 7 and 8 Coun. Pat Fortini, who interrupted Williams’ reading of her letter with a point of order. “We haven’t done nothing racist.”

She retracted the offending statements — and eventually the whole letter — after the mayor refocussed the discussion on the matter at hand.

“I would just stress, the topic we’re having right now is on mailing costs. So let’s not expand the scope of this conversation,” he ruled.