NEWS RELEASE
SAVE OUR SPEECH STRATFORD
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City Hall’s attempt to police people’s facial expressions demonstrates how bizarrely out of control its Respectful Workplace Policy has become, says Save Our Speech Stratford.
SOS Stratford was referring to a July 16 exposé in StratfordToday about a lengthy chastisement emailed by city Clerk Tatiana Dafoe to Stratford of the Worlds Advisory Committee Chair Joan Ayton that accuses the long-time volunteer of “facial micro-aggressions,” among other things.
“It’s bad enough they want to stop speech. Now they want to stop facial movements,” SOS Stratford spokesperson Robert Roth says.
“This is beyond ridiculous. When a raised eyebrow or whatever can be elevated to the exaggerated status of an aggression, the city has clearly lost any sense of perspective. Facial expressions of approval or disapproval, worry, shock or confusion are almost unconscious, involuntary muscular reactions. You see them all the time during a political discussion.”
Ayton went public this week after being frustrated in her attempts to have the accusations withdrawn and removed from the city’s records.
Ayton was cited by Dafoe for allegedly violating the workplace policy with comments and facial expressions made at the committee’s April 25 meeting involving Vicki Trotter, the staff coordinator for the committee.
Ayton received an 11-page emailed chastisement from Dafoe on May 2 that included a list of accusations and a copy of the workplace policy. Dafoe itemizes several alleged policy violations, including using an antagonistic tone towards staff, speaking in a manner that belittled staff, raising her voice to staff and using “facial micro-aggressions.”
In her email, Dafoe said that although “a formal complaint/incident report had not been filed” by Trotter, “when the City is made aware of incidents or concerning behaviour we are obligated to review those concerns, even when a formal complaint has not been filed.”
In the Stratford Today news story, three of Ayton’s fellow committee members stepped forward to say the accusations are unfounded – Linda Hawken, Kathy Hill and Counc. Geza Wordofa, who attends SOTW meetings as the council representative.
On July 11, Ayton emailed city Director of Corporate Services Karmen Krueger asking that the letter of accusations be “removed from any record.”
Krueger replied that “the letter that was issued constitutes a corporate record of the City and under record retention by-laws and legislation, cannot be removed” and “we will consider the matter closed with the understanding that the expectations outlined in the Respect in the Workplace policy will be adhered to moving forward.”
Ayton says she will continue to work on getting her name cleared.
In the StratfordToday story, committee member Hill warns that the city is creating a climate of fear.
“You’re afraid to say anything, and you don’t want to promote things going on like that because people won’t want to volunteer,” she says. “We should be treated like adults, not children that are running back to the principal to say this and that happened and I want something done about it. Nothing good comes from a meeting where there isn’t conflict that gets resolved - it doesn’t necessarily end with good decisions.”
Roth pointed out that “the added voices of dedicated volunteers, such as Ayton, Hill and Hawken, totally undermine the fiction fomented by some councillors that the fight for free speech is only about a couple of disgruntled, disruptive people. This continuing attack on free speech is affecting more and more people every day – and they are courageously speaking out.”
Ayton is the second citizen to go public in just over a week after being hit with the workplace policy. Tim Forster challenged an official complaint by Dafoe over comments he made at a public council meeting on May 13. The city hired a law firm to conduct a “confidential” investigation into the complaint, but it was mysteriously withdrawn within hours of SOS Stratford making the matter public in a news release published by Stratford Today on July 8.
Roth said it is “particularly ironic that this Respectful Workplace Policy is doing the opposite of creating respect. Council needs to intervene and train staff in how to respect the democratic process and cope with the robust debates and differences of opinion that typically take place at political meetings. They need to learn how to de-escalate a situation and not turn a molehill into a mountain.”
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