Calgary councillor Sean Chu’s censure ends
Posted Oct 25, 2022 8:35 pm.
Last Updated Oct 26, 2022 10:13 am.
Calgary Ward 4 Coun. Sean Chu is back after a one-year censure banning him from serving on committees.
Chu was approved for the Community Development Committee Tuesday in a 14-1 vote at Calgary city council.
Ward 9 Coun. Gian Carlo Carra was the only person to vote against Chu’s appointment.
He argues the circumstances that motivated Chu’s censure last year have not changed.
“There are methods that you take when you have no other options. We’ve exhausted all of our options and used all the methods available to us, at a time when we didn’t know what we could do last year,” Calgary Mayor Jyoti Gondek told reporters Tuesday.
“We have been told by the powers that be that we have no ability to remove a member of council, so the options are don’t give them anything to do and they earn an income, or give them something to do.”
Carra apologized earlier in the year for tweets he made regarding a councillor, insinuating that certain council members “support child molesters and are not fit to serve.”
Calgary police released a review of the 1997 investigation into Chu, which stemmed from the allegations of sexual misconduct. The investigation found that errors were made and the complaint was not properly followed.
READ MORE; Calgary police finish review on Sean Chu case, shows errors were made
The Ward 4 councillor has been all but invisible around council chambers for the last year after facing scathing criticism from the public and his colleagues for his alleged inappropriate physical contact with a 16-year-old girl while he was a police officer.
Calgary City Council banned Chu from joining any standing policy committee, board, or commission in a 9-6 vote after he refused to resign late last year.
–With files from Taylor Braat