Anjou Mayor Luis Miranda on Tuesday apologized again for his anger at a teenager who questioned him at the municipal council, but now faces a complaint before the Quebec Municipal Commission (CMQ).
Posted at 5:28pm
Isabelle Ducas The press
At the start of Tuesday night’s county council meeting, Mr Miranda recalled the events of October 4, when he had reacted aggressively to young Hocine Ouendi.
“Unfortunately, I got carried away and made comments that exceeded my thoughts. I would like once again to offer my sincere apologies to Mr Hocine Ouendi and his mother, and to my fellow citizens who may have been offended by certain words I spoke about the unfortunate situation at Parc Goncourt. ‘ said the district mayor.
Hocine Ouendi appeared at the Anjou municipal council meeting to question the mayor about the closure of the district’s synthetic soccer fields. The site was closed due to vandalism and the teenager suggested hiring security guards to avoid such a situation.
He had been sharply criticized and interrupted by Mr. Miranda, who reprimanded him for daring to ask him a question. “At 15, I don’t even have anything to do with him,” the borough mayor said, suggesting that young Hocine’s mother should raise her son better.
“Look at yourself in the mirror,” Mr. Miranda continued, pointing out that such problems only occur on soccer fields and not on the sets of other sports.
lack of ethics
Despite the mayor’s apology, which was made first on television and then to the Montreal City Council last week, Hocine Ouendi’s mother filed a complaint against Luis Miranda with the CMQ with the help of the Center de Recherche-Action on Race Relations.
According to the complaint, Mayor Miranda committed a serious violation of Montreal’s Code of Ethics for Elected Officials, which requires them to avoid conduct that undermines the honor and dignity of an elected official’s office and to behave with respect toward citizens at all times Not to behave disrespectfully towards citizens, in particular through the use of annoying, abusive or intimidating words, writing or gestures or any form of rudeness of an annoying nature, and not to discriminate on the basis of race, age, ethnic or national origin.
“The mayor of Anjou racially profiled my son. If my son were not 15 years old and Arab-looking, he most likely would not have been treated this way by Mayor Miranda,” denounces the complainant, who preferred not to mention names in the documents sent to La Presse.
The complaint relates to the fact that Luis Miranda targeted football players despite the fact that the sport is known to be popular among “Arab and African ethnic groups”.
In his statement to the Municipal Council, the Mayor of Anjou deplored “the climate of violence and intimidation that prevails around Parc Goncourt”.
“This situation is caused by a gang of young delinquents. Among other things, this group destroys the facilities, insults the elderly and sabotages their pétanque activities and other events. Feces were even shot in their direction,” he said.
“These delinquents continue to take over the soccer fields after hours, so much so that we have twice had to cancel soccer games for young children because this gang of delinquents refused to leave, insulted and intimidated our superiors. »
He assured that the district would no longer tolerate such behavior and would take action against the rudeness of these “harmful individuals”.