By any measure, Glen Murray is unfit to be mayor of Winnipeg.
He's
been openly lying to voters for months about the disgraceful behaviour that
caused him to be fired from his "dream job" as head of the Alberta
think tank the Pembina Institute.
And coupled with his
thuggish attempt to intimidate the female Mayor of a small township in Ontario
when he was in the Liberal cabinet, his actions speak volumes about his
prejudice against women whether they are colleagues, employees or elected
officials.
Murray
has hidden behind the fiction that he left Pembina because of "personal
issues" and that any recent criticisms are just sour grapes from employees
who objected to his attempt to modernize and shake up the think tank.
A
couple of devastating investigative reports by CBC have shown that nothing
could be further from the truth. Murray's critics aren't hiding behind the
usual "anonymous sources" that too many "investigative
reports" are based upon. Murray's Pembina co-workers are quoted by name
and give chapter and verse about his short-lived management disaster.
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/manitoba/winnipeg-murray-pembina-1.6599463
According
to the CBC reports Glen Murray disgusted his staff almost from the start with
unwelcome comments about his promiscous homosexual lifestyle. He followed that
up by being falling-down-drunk on various social occasions.
At
one, he committed a sexual assault against a male Pembina official on a dance
floor by grinding himself against the man's buttocks.
The Black Rod has followed the timeline to show that barely eight months into his
tenure, Murray was frozen out of any public appearances that would attach his
name to the Pembina institute.
What we didn't know
was how toxic the Pembina offices had become under Glen Murray.
The
organization's ombudswoman quit after two months, saying in an email obtained
by CBC that Murray had "obstructed and/or marginalized" her office.
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/manitoba/murray-pembina-complaints-emails-1.6622394
"I
personally have been subject to his offensive language … and I have witnessed
it with other staff. I am deeply insulted and offended by his foul language and
his 'jokes,'" she told the CBC.
Murray
resisted for months board orders to fill her position, then announced he was
hiring an Ontario law firm with a partner who was a colleague of his. Yeah,
that was a confidence builder.
Other
women made complaints of being publicly shamed and belittled by Murray. The
situation grew so toxic that board members were faced with an employee revolt
against Murray. A private consulting firm was hired to investigate the
complaints. The board held an emergency meeting on Aug. 24, 2018, to discuss
the firm's report.
A
week later, Murray was handed a "termination order". In short, he was
fired. He begged to be allowed to resign instead and that was granted.
The
Pembina Institute fiasco happened four years after Glen Murray showed his
misogynistic hand while trying to bully Marolyn Morrison, the mayor of Caledon,
Ont., on behalf of a land developer who couldn't get municipal approval for a
housing project.
http://blackrod.blogspot.com/2022/08/a-2018-globe-and-mail-story-exposes.html
Somebody
wanted that project to go ahead and was prepared to play hard-ball.
Morrison's
husband was beaten up and left with a message for his wife to approve the deal.
A tax auditor was charged and convicted to trying to frame Morrison for tax
evasion, a scheme that had her investigated by the OPP. And a friend of
Morrison's was offered $10,000 to $15,000 to arrange a private, one-on-one
meeting with an unnamed person who was interested in the housing development.
She
resisted all the pressure for four years. The Black Rod wrote what happened
next.
"Four years
later, the Mayor of Caledon would find herself tricked into a private meeting
with another man who also insisted, that there be no witnesses."
"His name---Glen Murray."
Murray
called Mayor Morrison to Queen's Park for a meeting about a number of issues.
Then he asked all staff from both sides to leave the room. He began suggesting
that Morrison change the zoning of unspecified agricultural land to
residential, hint hint, she recalled.
There were complaints against her, he told her, and he could make those
complaints go away, hint hint.
Morrison
rejected the intimidation tactics by Murray, but complained to the Liberal
Premier about him. Nothing was done.
Gail Asper and the Winnipeg Firefighters Association think Glen Murray is the
perfect candidate to be Mayor of Winnipeg.
We
think he is a perfect candidate to embarrass and shame the city.