A former city councillor says Windsor is on the map again for something it should not be proud of.
Speaking on AM800's The Dan MacDonald Show, former ward 3 councillor Rino Bortolin says he's hoping city council looks into comments made by current ward 4 city councillor Mark McKenzie on a 2022 podcast about public hangings.
"We locally should be considering is this the type of person we want representing us on city council," says Bortolin.
On Tuesdsay, the Conservatives removed McKenzie as the candidate in Windsor-Tecumseh-Lakeshore riding after he joked on the podcast that former prime minister Justin Trudeau should receive the death penalty.
The episode of the "Mark and Chris Podcast" was released at the end of the Freedom Convoy in February 2022 that took over downtown Ottawa for three weeks amid political division over pandemic restrictions and mandates.
Bortolin says residents should be calling or emailing the city's integrity commissioner to file a complaint.
"If a party is deeming him unfit to be just a candidate much less a seating MP or sitting MPP or anything like that, why is it ok that and why are we allowing it to stand as a city councillor without any or without censure, any sort of investigation or anything like that," says Bortolin.
He says residents do have a right to ask for a city councillor to be removed.
"I think with such an obvious light being shone on this, we need to actually look at it and see what city council, what the integrity commissioner should be doing to weigh in on this," he says.
Bortolin says the integrity commissioner will weigh in if complaints are received.
"At that point it will be up to city council to decide what exactly is the course of action," says Bortolin.
The former councillor believes what McKenzie said is a sign of his character and feels the situation should not be taken lightly.
He says there are ways council can censure and show disapproval including removing McKenzie from committees, removing any positions he holds as chair and holding back pay for certain periods of time.