Brampton councillor Gurpreet Dhillon has denied the allegation and has started legal action against his suspension
The Canadian Bazaar
TORONTO: Brampton councillor Gurpreet Singh Dhillon has been suspended following allegations of sexual assault by a woman.
The city council has suspended the two-time councillor for 90 days and passed a unanimous motion to seek his resignation.
With a population of about 700,000, Brampton has Canada’s biggest concentration of the Indian community which makes up about 25 percent of the city population.
The action against Councillor Gurpreet Dhillon follows after a local salon owner accused him of sexually assaulting her when the two were visiting Turkey as part of a Canada Turkish Business Council delegation in November 2019.
In her complaint to the city mayor, the woman said that Dhillon forced himself on her while she was in her hotel room.
The woman met the mayor and played the recording of her encounter with the councillor in her room and showed his text messages to support her claim.
The mayor asked the city’s integrity commissioner – which is the watchdog for city councillors – to investigate the allegations.
The investigation found the allegations of sexual assault against Dhillon to be true.
But since the integrity commissioner can only recommend disciplinary action, not removal, it asked the city council to suspend Dhillon, without pay for 90 days.
However, the Brampton city council has not only suspended him but asked him to resign in a unanimous motion.
Denying the allegations, Dhillon, who is a baptized Sikh, said he won’t resign.
He said, “I am deeply troubled by city council’s politically motivated decisions today in response to the integrity commissioner’s flawed report. I have and continue to vehemently deny all allegations against me and have commenced legal action.”
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