Embattled Pickering councillor Lisa Robinson has urgently appealed to all Members of Provincial Parliament for intervention after claiming she has gone 21 months without receiving any pay as an elected official.
Robinson, who represents Ward 1 in the City of Pickering, sent an open letter to all MPPs yesterday requesting immediate help in what she describes as an intolerable situation. She says repeated sanctions under the Municipal Act, 2001 have resulted in her pay being docked continuously for nearly two years.
In her letter, Robinson states that while the Municipal Act allows council to withhold a councillor’s pay for up to 90 days per finding of an egregious breach, she has never committed fraud, theft, criminal activity or anything that could reasonably be considered egregious. She claims the sanctions stem almost entirely from her exercise of Charter-protected freedom of expression, including speaking out about corruption, wasteful spending and loopholes on behalf of her constituents.
Robinson alleges that 99 per cent of the sanctions originate directly from Mayor Kevin Ashe and the Chief Administrative Officer. She says they file the complaints themselves and then vote on the sanctions that strip her of pay, which she describes as a clear conflict of interest and a blatant abuse of process. She also accuses them of weaponizing the integrity commissioner, the same individual she says was previously removed from other municipalities for bias and overreach.
The councillor says the retaliation has extended far beyond financial punishment. She describes a sustained campaign of bullying, intimidation, demonization, sexual harassment, violent threats and personal destruction spanning four years.
Robinson alleges that Mayor Ashe has publicly stated he wants to keep her on a short leash, called her names, insulted her and posted attacks on Facebook. She says council has repeatedly cropped her out of official group photos and that one fellow councillor subjected her to explicit sexual harassment and made violent threats, including saying he could stick a knife in her back and slowly twist it.
According to Robinson, the integrity commissioner has done nothing about these complaints and sweeps all complaints against the mayor and other council members under the carpet. She says her entire term has been defined by near-constant six-to-one votes against her on virtually every issue.
Robinson testified before the Standing Committee on the Legislative Assembly in October 2025 regarding Minister Rob Flack’s Bill 9, the Municipal Accountability Act. She warned that the bill sets an extremely low threshold for councils to sanction or remove individual councillors who are simply trying to do the right thing. She says if passed in its current form, it will enable even greater harm and make it easier to silence and remove dissenting voices on council.
The ongoing dispute between Robinson and Pickering council has drawn significant attention to questions about municipal governance, accountability and the rights of elected officials to speak freely on behalf of their constituents without fear of reprisal.
Robinson’s appeal to the province marks an escalation in her efforts to challenge the sanctions and bring attention to what she describes as a pattern of systemic targeting by her colleagues on Pickering council.
