CORNWALL – A Cornwall city councillor says a worker who got into a heated argument and swore at a group of hockey players this week will be disciplined.
But in a social media post Friday night, Coun. Justin Towndale says “he will not be fired, nor should he be.”
Towndale says the 35-second video clip of the exchange, which included the employee dropping an f-bomb in a threat to melt the ice at the Reg Campbell Park rink, does not capture the entire exchange. Towndale believes the city worker was provoked by the crowd.
“I believe the employee when he says that there was verbal harassment…While his language wasn’t professional, I can understand his frustration,” Towndale wrote. “He was pushed by some folks a bit too far.”
The argument started Wednesday afternoon after a complaint was made about a group of youths playing shinny at the rink, which is not allowed under health unit guidelines. Police showed up later but didn’t find any violations under the Reopening Ontario Act.
Towndale adds that the employee has been unjustly “vilified,” his family threatened and “treated like he’s a terrible person who deserves to lose his job…None of this is appropriate or acceptable.”
While the worker maintains the rink, Towndale added that he was not acting on his own when taking away hockey nets at the park.
As of Friday, the city was still conducting an internal investigation.