Ottawa's integrity commissioner has documented a significant increase in formal complaints during the 2025 reporting year, highlighting a troubling pattern of disrespectful behavior toward city councillors and their staff.
Rising Complaints and Rude Behavior
The office of Integrity Commissioner Karen E. Shepherd recorded 17 formal complaints in 2025, a noticeable jump from the 12 complaints filed during the previous year. In her annual report released in late November 2025, Shepherd identified what she describes as a continuing trend of councillors seeking guidance about managing unreasonable constituent demands and hostile communications.
Shepherd emphasized that while council members have a duty under the Municipal Act to serve constituents conscientiously, this obligation does not extend to enduring abusive or aggressive behavior from the public. The report specifically notes that the Code of Conduct for councillors establishes no specific service standards regarding response times or engagement levels with constituents.
Protecting Staff from Emotional Toll
The commissioner's report detailed one particularly concerning case where a councillor's office requested help managing a pattern of disrespectful written communications from residents. These exchanges included abusive language and demands that the councillor take specific actions, creating what Shepherd described as an unreasonable emotional toll on staff and consuming excessive time.
Shepherd worked with the office to develop templated responses to manage various communication types effectively. She recommended implementing disclaimers in automatic messages stating the office's zero-tolerance policy toward harassment and indicating that repeated inquiries on already-addressed matters may not receive further responses.
City Policy on Public Conduct
The City of Ottawa maintains a public conduct policy that balances service provision with staff protection. This policy explicitly acknowledges the need to set limitations on unreasonable behavior and manage what it terms frivolous and vexatious complaints from certain members of the public.
Shepherd's report clarifies that day-to-day office management remains at councillors' discretion, including decisions about how and to what extent they engage with constituents on policy matters. The commissioner's guidance aims to help elected officials maintain accessibility while establishing necessary boundaries to protect their wellbeing and that of their staff.
