Heather Wright/The Independent

There is more than a little tension around the Lambton County council table recently.

It stems from an in camera incident which led to shouting loud enough to be heard in the council chambers.

It stems, sources tell The Independent, from the investigation by the Integrity Commissioner into the conduct of Sarnia City/County Councillor Bill Dennis.

Nov. 27, Lambton County Council received a letter from Chief Janelle Nahmabin about fines paid by Imperial Oil to the county for a spill. She requested the county turn over the fine, since it was Aamjiwnaang residents who suffered health problems from the spill.

County councillors received the letter, but took no action. At the time Sarnia City/County Councillor Bill Dennis called Nahmabin “anti-Chemical Valley.

“She’s used words like her terms like environmental terrorism…They have an end goal to get rid of Chemical Valley,” Dennis said during the council meeting.

“We we cannot keep on being weak to these people. We can’t. We got to show some, some backbone,” said Dennis.

Nahmabin filed an complaint to both the county and the city in February saying Dennis’ comments were “untrue, reckless, offensive, disparaging and abusive towards me personally as well as the community of Aamjiwnaang as a whole and represent an attempt to bully and intimidate Aamjiwnaang and its members.”

During the April 16 committee meeting, councillors received an update on the case from the Delegated Integrity Commissioner, Rebecca Haines, a senior associate with Hunter Legal LLP.

Haines says she tried to mediate  between Dennis and Nahmabin on March 25, but “substantive mediation discussion did not occur” and mediation was not successful.

The next step was an investigation. Dennis’ lawyers received an extension until May 1 to answer the commissioner’s questions. Haines suggested a report on the issue might be available in early June.

The report was received in open council without any comment. Dennis declared a conflict of interest.

Minutes later, the meeting moved in camera, according to the publicly-available committee meeting minutes, for a legal matter which Dennis had also declared a conflict.

The minutes show Dennis was also in the ante-chamber where the in camera session was held. And that’s where things got heated. 

Multiple sources tell The Independent Dennis berated many of his fellow councillors, including Warden Kevin Marriott, singling them out one-by-one. Many were stunned. Some pushed back.

People who remained in the council chamber, sources say, could hear the raised voices and specifically identified Dennis as one of the people shouting.

The minutes show Dennis left the meeting at 9:25 am, 15 minutes after the in camera session started. 

The rest of the councillors returned to the chambers about nine minutes later and the meeting was quickly adjourned.

The Independent contacted Dennis about the incident. He referred our questions to his legal council, Matthew Olson.

Olson said he was not able to talk about anything which occurred in camera.