Grey matter: the headache is over

"The town has no legal right to discriminate against anyone on the basis of his or her political activities," said mayor William Steinberg shortly before the councillors proceeded to the vote.

Grey, a minority rights advocate, was hired by the town in 2006 to work on a municipal case involving a dog run in Langhorne Park. He drew the ire of many Hampstead residents a few weeks ago after he publicly endorsed Louise Harel in her campaign for Montreal's municipal election with Vision Montréal and was charged with heading one of the working groups she created to advise the party.

This decision obviously stirred up many bitter feelings among residents who remember Harel as the architect of the demerger process when she was Minister of Municipal Affairs.

At the town's previous council meeting, a motion to end Grey's mandate was stopped by Mayor Steinberg's veto, who argued that the absence of two councillors created unfavourable circumstances for a vote. Last Monday's vote was supposed to confirm or overturn Steinberg's veto.

The debate spread in the media in the following weeks, with councillor David Sternthal stating in an op-ed piece published in a local newspaper that "democracy is dead in Hampstead,” Mayor David Steinberg responding by comparing Sternthal's methods to McCarthyism and Louise Harel herself qualifying the reaction to the whole affair as "hysteric."

Although last Monday's vote was the result of the controversy over Grey's endorsement of Harel and focused on the issue of freedom of speech, his mandate with the town was always subject to criticism, mainly over his friendship with the mayor and his qualifications as a municipal affairs lawyer. In fact, two previous votes to end Grey's mandate had already been stopped by Steinberg's veto in 2007.

"I did not support Julius Grey just because of some kind of relationship that is there between the mayor and Mr. Julius Grey," said Councillor Leon Elfassy, who voted in favour of terminating the lawyer's mandate in order to avoid any conflict of interest.

Councillors Abe Gonshor and David Sternthal also voted to overturn the mayor's veto, while Bonnie Feigenbaum and Michael Goldwax voted to sustain it (Goldwax's decision was motivated by financial considerations.) Four votes would have been needed to quash the veto.

The tone of the council meeting was dominated by infighting, with several members of the public engaging in heated debates with the councillors while Mayor Steinberg and Councillor Sternthal, a candidate to next fall's mayoral election, exchanged verbal attacks.

"I think tonight, Mr. Mayor, you should look in the mirror and be ashamed of what you have just done or said, and Mr. Mayor, I am disappointed in you," said Sternthal during one of these exchanges.

What the two agreed on, however, is that residents will be the sole judges on the November 1 municipal election.