The mayor of Anjou, Luis Miranda, again apologized on Tuesday for his anger towards a teenager who came to question him in the borough council, but is now facing a complaint before the Municipal Commission of Quebec (CMQ).
Posted at 5:28 p.m.
At the start of the borough council meeting on Tuesday evening, Mr. Miranda returned to the events of October 4, when he had responded aggressively to the young Hocine Ouendi.
“I unfortunately got carried away and I made comments that exceeded my thoughts. Once again, I would like to express my most sincere apologies to Mr. Hocine Ouendi and his mother as well as to my fellow citizens who may have been offended by certain words I have spoken concerning the unfortunate situation prevailing at Parc Goncourt. ,” said the borough mayor.
Hocine Ouendi appeared at the Anjou borough council meeting to question the mayor about the closure of the borough’s synthetic soccer fields. The grounds were closed due to acts of vandalism, and the teenager proposed the hiring of guards to avoid this kind of situation.
He had been sharply criticized and interrupted by Mr. Miranda, who admonished him for daring to ask him a question. “At 15, I don’t even have a business talking to him,” said the borough mayor, suggesting that the mother of young Hocine should educate her son better.
“Look at yourself in the mirror,” continued Mr. Miranda, pointing out that such problems only occur on soccer fields and not on the sets of other sports.
Lack of ethics
Despite the mayor’s apologies, first made on television and then to Montreal City Council last week, Hocine Ouendi’s mother filed a complaint with the CMQ against Luis Miranda, with the help of the Center de recherche-action on race relations.
According to the complaint, Mayor Miranda has committed a serious breach of the code of ethics for elected Montreal officials, which requires them to avoid conduct that undermines the honor and dignity of the office of elected official, to act at all times with respect towards citizens, not to behave disrespectfully towards citizens by using, in particular, vexatious, denigrating or intimidating words, writings or gestures or any form of incivility of a vexatious nature, and not to discriminate on the basis of race, age, ethnic or national origin.
“The mayor of Anjou engaged in racial profiling against my son. If my son was not 15 years old and an Arab in appearance, it is very likely that he would not have been treated in such a way by Mayor Miranda”, denounces the complainant, who preferred not to name in the documents sent to The Press.
The complaint refers to the fact that Luis Miranda targeted soccer players, when the sport is well known to be popular with “Arab and African ethnocultural groups”.
In his statement to the borough council, the mayor of Anjou deplored “the climate of violence and intimidation that reigns around Parc Goncourt”.
“This situation is caused by a gang of young delinquents. This group vandalizes the facilities, insults the elderly and sabotages their pétanque activities and other events, among other things. Feces were even fired in their direction,” he said.
“These delinquents also take over the soccer fields after hours, so much so that we had to cancel soccer games for young children on two occasions because this gang of delinquents refused to leave, insulted and intimidated our supervisors. »
He assured that the borough would no longer tolerate such behavior and that it would act against the lack of civility of these “harmful individuals”.