Councillor Jim Karygiannis’ targeted intimidation of local residents was “shocking” conduct that broke council’s rules, a city watchdog has found.

But after two separate incidents, one of which involved an Uber driver, the integrity commissioner is advising council to reprimand the rookie councillor in only one of the cases. In the other, no punishment was recommended.

The complaints received by integrity commissioner Valerie Jepson involved residents of Ward 39, Scarborough-Agincourt, who accused their councillor of bullying and intimidation. Both had tweeted about their interactions.

Karygiannis, responding to Jepson as part of the investigation, said he did nothing wrong and was carrying out his duties as a councillor.

The first complainant, Monica Wahba, said that when she was driving home on May 3 last year, unknowingly behind Karygiannis’ car, the councillor stopped in front of her home and got out to argue that parking on the apron of her driveway was not allowed.

On Twitter, she wrote the councillor was “yelling and threatening me to move my vehicle before he would have every parking enforcement officer in Toronto at my home to have all of our vehicles impounded.”

After taking a picture of the car, Karygiannis left.

Wahba later tweeted about the incident, including pictures of Karygiannis, cigar in hand.

A week later, Karygiannis returned and knocked on the door and told the family the car had to be moved. Jepson wrote that Karygiannis spoke “in a normal voice and was polite.”

But a few days later, Karygiannis and the complainant’s father met unexpectedly in a shisha bar “which both men attended regularly.” Karygiannis again raised the parking issue “abruptly” and “in a loud voice.”

Karygiannis threatened to have the family ticketed.

On at least one other occasion, Karygiannis came to the house at night to take pictures of the parked cars, Jepson found. The family later complained to police, saying they were “scared of the councillor.”

While Jepson wrote that the councillor was correct about the parking prohibition, she said “Councillor Karygiannis’ repeated efforts to inform the complainant and her family about the bylaw were intimidating and harassing.”

“The councillor’s conduct is shocking and had the cumulative effect of irreparably harming the complainant’s and her family’s trust and confidence in the councillor,” Jepson wrote.“More importantly, the councillor’s actions led to a reasonable belief that the separation between elected officials and enforcement had been blurred and accordingly damaged the trust and confidence that the complainant and her family had in the institution of the City of Toronto.”

Karygiannis argued he was carrying out the duties expected of him as a councillor, but told Jepson’s office he apologized and could “understand how the complainant and her father may have perceived my actions differently and might have felt intimidated.”

Wahba told Jepson that apology wasn’t good enough.

But Jepson found Karygiannis should simply be reprimanded by council, with no other penalty.

“It is my view that requesting or coercing an additional apology from the councillor would not be productive at this stage,” she wrote.

The second incident took place in July 2015, when Karygiannis confronted an Uber driver whom Lauren Reyes-Grange had called to her parents’ home.

According to the integrity commissioner’s report, the driver first approached a group of people congregated outside another home on the street and asked if any of them had called for the car. Among the group was Karygiannis.

“In a loud voice, the councillor told the driver that by driving the Uber vehicle, he was breaking Ontario laws and municipal rules and regulations,” the report says. While there was some “dispute” about whether Karygiannis leaned inside the driver’s car, Jepson found Karygiannis “stood in close enough proximity to the driver that it contributed to the driver’s feelings of apprehension.”

The complainant’s father asked Karygiannis to leave his property. Karygiannis retreated to the sidewalk, where he took a picture of the Uber driver’s car, then got into his own car and left.

Karygiannis, who has been vocally opposed to Uber at council, told the integrity commissioner’s office that he was justified in intervening. Jepson found Karygiannis acted in an “inappropriate, aggressive and intimidating manner” but that it happened early in his term as he was “learning about the role of a municipal councillor.”

“The councillor asserted that because he had not been able to cross examine the witnesses, he was not able to adequately respond to the allegations,” Jepson wrote. She disagreed, saying the councillor had enough information to respond.

“He has indicated that he plans to adjust his conduct in the future,” Jepson wrote, arguing for leniency in the second case.

No punishment was recommended.

Karygiannis, a former Liberal MP who was elected to council less than two years ago, has previously found himself at the displeasure of his council colleagues.

In March last year, Karygiannis was reprimanded by Mayor John Tory for berating deputants who had come to city hall to speak about the ongoing Uber debate.

“This is the new city hall, not the old one,” Tory said then.

Toronto the gaffe-prone

Loading... Loading... Loading... Loading... Loading... Loading...

Jim Karygiannis isn’t the only Toronto councillor who has made regrettable remarks.

Jim Karygiannis is the latest in a long line of Toronto councillors who have suffered foot-in-mouth gaffes.

The city’s integrity commissioner, Valerie Jepson, said Karygiannis had intimidated residents of his ward, Scarborough-Agincourt, by telling off a woman for parking on the apron of her driveway. Even if he was right about the parking prohibition, his behaviour amounted to harassment, Jepson said.

Karygiannis is in good company. City councillors’ antics — from banning pop groups, to bragging about everything they have to eat at home — have piled up over the years.

1. December 1991

Mayor June Rowlands infamously barred The Barenaked Ladies from playing a New Year’s Eve show at Nathan Phillips Square on the grounds that their name objectifies women. She tried to make amends a few years later by offering the band a key to the city, but their lead singer, Steven Page, refused. “I think it was a symbolic gesture of making up with the City of Toronto. I also see it as a symbolic gesture of the beginning of campaign season, and Mayor Rowlands doesn't have my vote, " he told the Star in 1994.

2. June 2001

If putting your foot in your mouth were an Olympic event, Mayor Mel Lastman might have medaled. He came to regret a joke he made days before going to Mombasa, Kenya, to lobby African IOC delegates. “I’m sort of scared about going there, but the wife is really nervous. I just see myself in a pot of boiling water with all these natives dancing around me,” he said. Lastman apologized, but some say his remark hurt Canada’s Olympic bid.

3. January 2002

As if that wasn’t enough, Lastman was at the centre of controversy again months later for shaking hands with a Hells Angels member in full gang colours at a Holiday Inn in the Entertainment District. Speaking to reporters later, Lastman backpedalled: "Believe me, there was no intention of me telling these guys they were welcome.”

4. May 2006

There is nothing too unusual about a Leafs fan swilling beer and hollering at a game. Unless you’re a city councillor. Rob Ford at first denied and then admitted to having “one too many beers” and causing a disturbance at a Leafs game at the Air Canada Centre after a couple from Durham Region had complained about his behaviour.

5. August 2011

Rob may be the Ford brother better known for saying something outrageous, but Doug has made memorable blunders, too. After Margaret Atwood endorsed a union petition against library cuts and ridiculed Ford’s claim that his ward has more libraries than Tim Hortons, Ford told reporters: “Well, good luck to Margaret Atwood. I don’t even know her. If she walked by me, I wouldn’t have a clue who she is."

6. November 2013

To call this a faux pas is an understatement. Denying accusations that he was intimate with his former policy advisor, Olivia Gondek, then-mayor Rob Ford notoriously told journalists: “It says I wanted to eat her p---- and I have never said that in my life to her. I would never do that. I’m happily married and I’ve got more than enough to eat at home.” His crass phrase outraged many but also found its way onto T-shirts.

7. October 2014

Doug Ford made another monumental gaffe in a debate with long-shot mayoral candidate Ari Goldkind. He tried to defend to his brother against accusations of anti-Semitism after Rob was caught on video using racial slurs. As Doug began listing his family’s ties to Jewish people — beginning with “My Jewish doctor, my Jewish dentist, my Jewish lawyer, my Jewish accountant” — he was interrupted by booing from the audience.

8. July 2015

Though definitely not on par with some of the aforementioned blunders, Mayor John Tory embarrassed himself slightly when he told reporters Kanye West was “a proud product of our music industry.” Tory was speaking after it was revealed that the Atlanta-born, Chicago-raised West would play at the Pan Am Games closing ceremonies. More cringe-worthy still, in the eyes of many, was a subsequent video in which Tory tries to poke fun at himself for making the mistake.

Geoffrey Vendeville Staff Reporter