The conduct file
Two different systems govern how council members are held to account, and they are easy to confuse. Complaints go to the Integrity Commissioner and allege that a member broke the Code of Conduct. Declarations are the opposite: a member telling the City they have a financial interest in something on the agenda, and stepping out of the decision. One is an accusation. The other is a member following the rule.
The Integrity Commissioner is an independent officer who reviews complaints that council members breached the Code of Conduct, and who advises members on their ethical obligations. Most complaints end without any finding of wrongdoing (dismissed, abandoned, or resolved informally) and a complaint is not a finding.
The headline cases
The matters involving named members, told completely: what was alleged, how it ended, what council did, and the member’s own response. Cleared and sanctioned get the same treatment.
- Susan Stevenson (Ward 4)December 8, 2023 · ON THE 2026 BALLOT: MAYOR
Complaints about two clusters of social-media posts: a reposted opinion article on homelessness captioned 'London could be first,' and posts containing photos of recognizable unhoused individuals alongside references to crime and vandalism. Council minutes, Dec. 19, 2023 (IC report on agenda) ↗
FINDING UPHELD IN PART: THE INTEGRITY COMMISSIONER FOUND THE PHOTO POSTS BREACHED THE CODE'S DISCREDITABLE-CONDUCT RULE, BUT FOUND THE ARTICLE REPOST WAS NOT A BREACH, WRITING THAT COUNCILLORS 'ARE ENTITLED TO EXPRESS CONTROVERSIAL VIEWS AND OPINIONS WITHOUT FEAR OF CONTRAVENTION OF THE CODE.'Formal reprimand, imposed by council on December 19, 2023 on a 9-6 vote.THEIR RESPONSE: Stevenson disputed the validity of the investigation's process on the second set of complaints, and publicly disagreed with the finding; she sought a judicial review, and council voted down her request for city help with the legal costs.
- Susan Stevenson (Ward 4)November 29, 2024 (report); December 17, 2024 (council decision) · ON THE 2026 BALLOT: MAYOR
A complaint from the Deputy City Manager, Social and Health Development alleging a pattern of harassing conduct toward civic administration and a social-media post that named him in connection with the city's encampment strategy. Council minutes, Dec. 17, 2024 (IC report on agenda) ↗
FINDING UPHELD: THE INTEGRITY COMMISSIONER FOUND THE CUMULATIVE CONDUCT 'CONSTITUTES HARASSMENT, BULLYING AND TARGETING' IN CONTRAVENTION OF THE CODE OF CONDUCT.30-day suspension of pay (roughly $5,400), imposed by council on December 17, 2024 on an 8-6 vote.THEIR RESPONSE: Stevenson rejected the finding ('I disagree with the findings'), described the process as procedurally unfair, and said a 'small group continues to weaponize investigations because they cannot win arguments on their merits.'
- Peter Cuddy (Ward 3)February 28, 2025 (disposition letter) · ON THE 2026 BALLOT: WARD 3
A Code of Conduct complaint over cellphone videos showing an angry, profane confrontation with a former political consultant who had served him with a lawsuit outside his home in January 2025. CTV News London, Mar. 27, 2025 ↗
DECLINED TO INVESTIGATE: THE INTEGRITY COMMISSIONER'S DISPOSITION LETTER CALLED IT AN ISOLATED INCIDENT, NOTED THE CONSULTANT'S OWN CONDUCT WAS 'PROVOCATIVE AND CONFRONTATIONAL' AND THAT CUDDY HAD APOLOGIZED PUBLICLY AND TO THE CONSULTANT, AND CONCLUDED 'NO FURTHER ACTION IS WARRANTED.'THEIR RESPONSE: Cuddy said the outcome vindicated the account he had given ('I was vindicated') and noted he had completed a training course through the city as he had committed to constituents.
- Susan Stevenson (Ward 4)February 24, 2026 · ON THE 2026 BALLOT: MAYOR
Three formal complaints (files 2025-04-A, B and C) alleging she contravened the Code at a September 10, 2025 Ward 4 town hall by asking a videographer to stop recording, moving his camera, and having security ask him to stop or leave, and through later comments to media. IC report on Complaints 2025-04-A, B & C, Feb. 24, 2026 (london.ca) ↗
NO VIOLATION: ONE COMPLAINT WAS SUMMARILY DISMISSED FOR LACK OF PARTICULARS AND THE MEDIA-COMMENTS ALLEGATIONS WERE DISMISSED AS PROTECTED OPINION; AFTER A FULL INVESTIGATION OF THE REMAINING ALLEGATIONS, THE INTEGRITY COMMISSIONER FOUND NO CONTRAVENTION OF THE CODE AND RECOMMENDED THE CITY CLARIFY PROTOCOLS FOR RECORDING AT FUTURE TOWN-HALL MEETINGS.None: with no contravention, council had no authority to impose a penalty.THEIR RESPONSE: Stevenson called it 'a professional report that states clearly there wasn't anything that I did that was incorrect, inappropriate, or veering anywhere near warranting the taxpayer expense that was paid on this complaint' (CTV News, Feb. 28, 2026), and said established rules for recording at town halls should have existed earlier.
The rest of the record
Complaints with undisclosed subjects and the commissioner’s own annual summaries, the quiet majority of how this system actually resolves.
Principles Integrity's only annual report as Integrity Commissioner, covering June 1, 2023 to February 21, 2025; complaint totals are in the aggregate section below. Integrity Commissioner's Annual Report, Feb. 26, 2025 (london.ca) ↗
A formal complaint submitted incomplete. IC Annual Report 2025-2026 (london.ca) ↗
A complaint alleging Code contraventions over a lack of communication from a council member. IC Annual Report 2025-2026 (london.ca) ↗
A complaint alleging two council members demonstrated a lack of integrity in connection with alleged inaction relating to a parcel of land. IC Annual Report 2025-2026 (london.ca) ↗
An incomplete complaint that the complainant did not follow up on after the Integrity Commissioner's request. IC Annual Report 2025-2026 (london.ca) ↗
First annual report of Aird & Berlis LLP as interim Integrity Commissioner, covering May 3, 2025 to April 30, 2026; complaint totals are in the aggregate section below. IC Annual Report 2025-2026 (london.ca) ↗
Complaints, the whole term in numbers
- June 1, 2023 to February 21, 2025 (Principles Integrity's annual report, Feb. 26, 2025): 39 complaints received; 34 disposed of without a public report (through triage, dismissal, or informal resolution), 2 resulted in public reports to council (both concerning Coun. Stevenson), and 3 were still ongoing at the reporting date; the office also answered 18 requests for written advice. IC annual report, Feb. 2025 ↗
- Calendar 2025 (Aird & Berlis annual report, Apr. 30, 2026): 5 formal Code complaints: 1 terminated as incomplete, 1 summarily dismissed for no evidence, 1 dismissed for lack of grounds and jurisdiction, 1 fully investigated with no contravention found (the Stevenson town-hall matter), and 1 abandoned; no applications under the Municipal Conflict of Interest Act. IC annual report 2025-26 ↗
- January 1 to April 30, 2026: no complaints against council or local-board members and no Municipal Conflict of Interest Act applications; in the May 2025-April 2026 period the interim Integrity Commissioner also issued 11 written advice memos to 7 different council members and 1 to a local-board member. IC annual report 2025-26 ↗
- Mid-term change of Integrity Commissioner: on April 1, 2025, council adopted a committee recommendation (moved by Deputy Mayor Shawn Lewis) to give Principles Integrity 30 days' notice of termination and recruit a replacement; Aird & Berlis LLP was retained as interim Integrity Commissioner on May 3, 2025. council minutes, Apr. 1, 2025 ↗IC annual report 2025-26 ↗
Declarations of interest: the other conflict record
People often ask which councillors are landlords, or what they own. No one can answer that from the public record, and it is worth being clear about why.
Ontario does not require municipal councillors to disclose their assets. Provincial MPPs file an annual public statement of income, assets and liabilities with the Integrity Commissioner of Ontario under the Members' Integrity Act; municipal councillors file nothing equivalent. There is no register of what a councillor owns, so any list of it would be assembled from land titles by guesswork and could never be shown to be complete.
What does exist is narrower and more useful than it sounds. Under the Municipal Conflict of Interest Act, a member with a financial interest in a matter before Council must declare it, must not take part in the discussion, and must not vote. A member who declares an interest at a meeting must also file a written statement of it, the clerk records the declaration in that meeting's minutes, and the municipality must keep a registry of those statements and declarations and make it available for public inspection. London's is published on the City Council page.
The registry currently holds 43 written disclosures, from May 2023 to June 2026, filed by 10 of the 15 members of this Council. The same declaration can therefore appear twice in the public record: once in the registry and once in the minutes of the meeting where it was made.
Read it the right way round. A declaration is a member following the rule, not evidence of wrongdoing, and a member who files more of them is not more conflicted than one who files none. The registry tells you when someone recused themselves. It does not tell you what they own, and nothing in the public record does.
What the forms say
Each form asks the member to state a reason. All 43 filings were retrieved and read, including the handwritten ones, which are scans and had to be read by eye rather than by machine. Below is the meeting, the item, the category the Act uses, and the interest itself. Where the interest is the member’s own — their employer, their company, their property, their BIA — it is named, because the member is a public figure declaring it in an official filing. Where the interest belongs to a spouse, an ex-spouse, a child or a friend, it is described only by type. Those people are not public figures and did not run for anything.
Development Charges Reduction Program
Property the member owns in the affected area
Thames Valley DSB and City joint use of facilities agreement
YMCA Centre Branch Program Services and Access Agreement
School Block Status Update Report (PEC 4.1)
63 Byron Avenue East, Wortley Village Old South Heritage Conservation District
The member’s own home, near the property
RFT 2025-041 Bridging Support, Housing Stability Service
Fanshawe College, the member’s employer
City/County Cost Apportionment Agreements for Land Ambulance, Ontario Works, Housing and Child Care
Surplus School Sites Expression of Interest
Heritage Alteration Permit application, 255 Dufferin Ave (PEC 2.6)
Canada Life, the member’s employer (on leave)
Execution of 2023-2026 Collective Agreement for Local Union No. 101
1378-1398 Commissioners Road W (Z-9815), six-storey apartment approval
Bob Hayward YMCA at 1050 Hamilton Road
East London Link and Municipal Infrastructure tender
Fanshawe College, the member’s employer
Film London
Film London, LEDC Purchase of Service Agreement Amendment
Confidential CPSC item 4.5
Grant Economic Reserve Fund, LDBA: general clean-up and property damage grants
Downtown London BIA, which the member belongs to as a downtown business
Amendment to Banking Services Agreement; renaming of Bud Gardens
Canada Life, the member’s employer (on leave)
Downtown London Entertainment and Sports Centre naming rights
Canada Life, the member’s employer (on leave)
Col. Talbot Road and 6621 Pack Road
In-camera: sale of Pine Street property
A property the member leased from the City, through a company he owns
In-camera CSC report, brought forward to the July 23 2024 Council meeting
Declare Surplus, City-Owned Property, Part of Pine Street
A property the member leased from the City, through a company he owns
Expropriation of lands, East London; 1001 Fanshawe College Blvd
Fanshawe College, the member’s employer
October Progress Update, Health and Homelessness; funding for BIA
Downtown London BIA, which the member belongs to as a downtown business
October Progress Update, Health and Homelessness; grants to BIAs
Downtown London BIA, which the member belongs to as a downtown business
October Progress Update; funding request
Downtown London BIA, which the member belongs to as a downtown business
October Progress Update; grants to BIAs
Downtown London BIA, which the member belongs to as a downtown business
Considerations to London Transit; appointment of volunteers
Broughdale Dyke (Civic Works Committee item 2.4)
Property the member owns in the affected area
313-323 Horton Street East (Z-9616), development of property
Properties the member owns on the same street
Direct, indirect and deemed are the Act’s own three categories. Indirect covers an interest held through someone or something else, such as a spouse or a corporation. Deemed covers interests the Act treats as the member’s own. Read the pattern rather than the tally. The same few institutions recur — a large employer, a school board, a business improvement area — because councillors’ working lives concentrate in a handful of London organisations that also do a great deal of business with the City. Every entry here is a member telling the City to keep them out of a decision.
WHAT THIS PAGE CAN AND CANNOT SHOW ▾
- Confidential and informally resolved matters are not public and cannot be listed; the 34 complaints Principles Integrity disposed of without a public report are known only as a count, not by member or subject.
- No annual report covers the start of the term (November 15, 2022 to May 31, 2023, before Principles Integrity's appointment) or the gap between Integrity Commissioners (February 22 to May 2, 2025); any complaints in those windows are not publicly summarized, apart from the Cuddy disposition letter, which is known only through news coverage.
- The 3 complaints listed as ongoing on February 21, 2025 have no public accounting after the change of Integrity Commissioner in May 2025.
- Complaint counts come from the Integrity Commissioners' own reports; the city does not publish a complaint registry, and complaint subjects stay confidential unless a public report names them (entries marked 'undisclosed' reflect that).
- A complaint (or even a full investigation) is not a finding of wrongdoing. Across this term, three matters produced public reports and only two ended in findings against a member; every other known complaint ended without a finding.