HALDIMAND—Haldimand Mayor Shelley Ann Bentley will face a 120-day suspension of pay and must issue a public apology to Norfolk Mayor Amy Martin following a heated Council debate about the contents of Integrity Commissioner David Boghosian’s report, which found Bentley guilty of four code of conduct violations.
Prior to the debate on Monday, September 22, 2025, Bentley recused herself from the conversation and exited the chamber.
The meeting began with a delegation from resident Anna Mroz that questioned the credibility of Boghosian’s report, noting various typos.
Mroz cited examples where she believed Boghosian unnecessarily depicted Bentley in a negative light. This includes referencing Bentley’s acceptance of strong mayor powers and using those powers to fire former CAO Cathy Case, a detail Mroz deemed irrelevant to the investigation.
Mroz also criticized Boghosian including his opinion in the report: “This is not a personal journal…. His feelings and opinions should not be mentioned in the report as it’s trying to sell a narrative to the reader.”
Mroz argued that leaking the confidential documents would be “political suicide” and Bentley would know better: “There is no logic to it, because Mayor Bentley does not lack the intelligence to understand her job and reputation would be at stake.”
She concluded by accusing Boghosian of using assumptions, accusations, and associations in his report in place of facts or evidence.
“Is there a vindictive motive and directive to purposely damage Mayor Bentley’s career and reputation? Perhaps to punish her for accepting the strong powers and releasing the CAO from her contract? How about her strong stance against the MZO?” she asked.
Next up at the podium, Boghosian responded to Mroz’s comments: “I disagree with almost everything the delegate said, but the one thing that is absurd is that I would time the release of my report for some political purpose. I live and work in Toronto…. I have absolutely no reason, and certainly no knowledge that there was an MZO debate or decision coming down at the time it was released. I have 16 other municipalities I’m IC for right now. To suggest I would go out of my way to interfere with politics in Haldimand County is quite frankly a baseless attack.”
Boghosian then took several questions from councillors.
Councillor Patrick O’Neill asked how the public apology to Martin could be enforced. Boghosian said that ultimately if the apology was not completed properly, it would be under Council’s directive to determine next steps.
Councillor Brad Adams questioned if Boghosian had at any point received documentation that showed the leaked documents were in fact not confidential, a point which Councillor Debera McKeen argued as well.
“Absolutely not,” replied Boghosian. “The only official person who commented on the confidentiality was Mr. McKaig, your legal counsel. He said they were confidential, and I agree.”
McKeen launched a series of criticisms at Boghosian, noting she had reached a “different conclusion” reading the report. Boghosian maintained confidence in his report.
McKeen criticized that a complainant – whose complaint was deemed unfounded by Boghosian – remained anonymous, depriving Bentley of the ability to know her accuser.
“It’s a very common practice to grant anonymity to members of the public to protect them from reprisal,” replied Boghosian.
“During these investigations, did you try the age-old police trick of telling one suspect that the other suspect blamed them?” continued McKeen in her questioning. “Police and attorneys do this on TV all the time.”
Boghosian confirmed he has never used that technique, to which McKeen responded, “Really? Wow. And you’re experienced? Haven’t you watched TV?”
McKeen later iterated that she shares Bentley’s habit with printing important emails due to emails ‘disappearing’, adding, “In case of future integrity complaints against me … I just want that noted.”
Following Boghosian’s dismissal from the debate, things got even more heated with several instances of councillors making comments while others had the mic.
“This whole idea that there’s things going on behind the scenes, that we’re all part of – and this is all to avoid the MZO – there’s just no basis for it. It’s just a narrative. It’s fear mongering,” said O’Neill, railing against claims of corruption by McKeen and Adams. “You’re representatives of CARD. Fear mongering is the tactic you guys have been using for a long time now…. I am actually excited for Councillor Adams to lay out how this is all a big conspiracy.”
Adams called the report “nothing more than a smear campaign” from a “group (that) is under some form of direction”. He said it “has become clear this week that Ford has infiltrated our own Haldimand Council” and repeated McKeen’s concern that O’Neill is affiliated with the local PC Riding Association. Of note, MPP Bobbi Ann Brady shared a similar criticism to social media minutes before the Council meeting began, including a photo of O’Neill in a blue sweater and hat at a riding meeting.
“Anyone can be part of any provincial or federal party they want as a councillor. There’s nothing wrong with it,” O’Neill responded, noting he was recently approached by the association for assistance. “In my opinion we can’t go another four years with the MPP we have now.”
As Adams’ speech continued, Shirton called a point of order as the chair of the meeting for Adams to return to the meeting’s topic, telling Adams to “shut it down.” Adams and Shirton went back and forth on the matter, with a chorus of boos from the gathered crowd.
Adams assured Shirton his remarks related to Bentley’s sentencing and continued, “The truth doesn’t seem to matter with this group. It’s a complete seek and destroy mission to eliminate the competition.”
He referred to the report as “slanted” with testimony from “cunning witnesses” to discredit Bentley based on complaints launched by political rivals.
“Think about how hard it is to prove you didn’t do it when the public information smear campaign has already been put in full swing,” said Adams.
O’Neill again challenged Adams that there is “no proof, no evidence, no nothing” that the PC party was involved in the report’s release date: “I had no idea when the report was coming out, I never talked to the IC personally.… There’s just nothing to it.”
Adams also defended the mayor’s choice to seek legal counsel before speaking with Boghosian.
“When the IC has been fed a report that is so slanted and biased, and propagated by the powers that be that want to see the mayor fail, … I would want legal representation as well, for sure,” he said.
Drawing the discussion to a close, Shirton asked County external counsel Woody McKaig to re-confirm his stance on the confidentiality of the documents at the heart of the report.
“When you go back and read the correspondence, it’s clear that they were not meant to be made public because they dealt with sensitive procedural matters,” said McKaig. “I had no doubt they were confidential.”
The suspension of pay was broken into three parts: 60 days given for the leak that resulted in the original posting to Facebook, which Boghosian determined was intended to hurt Martin’s bid for MPP; 30 days for releasing the documents to The Hamilton Spectator; and 30 days for releasing the documents again on her mayoral Facebook page. Council voted 4-2 in favour of the penalties as recommended by Boghosian, with McKeen and Adams voting against.
