Councillor Karen Stintz Laughs it up With Four Billboard Lobbyists
Last week, City Council put off the Sign By-Law and Billboard Tax debate until 10am Monday morning while it considered other business. In the meantime, City Council’s public gallery was packed with billboard lobbyists and activists.
From time to time, City Councillors would chat with members of the public as well as the industry’s paid lobbyists. But one City Councillor only spoke to the lobbyists. Her name is Karen Stintz. And we have the video to prove it:
The silent video hits high drama at 0:33, when Stintz’ animation gets a tad wild.
In that video you can see, starting from Karen Stintz’ left:
Chris Korwin-Kuczynski: Advising OMAC and Pattison, he is the man who successfully banned the Barenaked Ladies from Nathan Philips Square when he was a City Councillor; Paul “School Killer” Christie, also advising both OMAC and Pattison; Stephen McGregor of CBS Outdoor and Sid Catalano of Pattison.
You may remember Karen Stintz from this Spacing Wire expose: Karen Stintz, Billboards, and how to get around the Lobbyist Registry, a blog post that one City Councillor said was “widely distributed and quite well enjoyed around City Council.” But it was Torontoist who said it most presciently in December 2006 when it wrote:
Karen Stintz is the worst of a very questionable bunch. She may be the most articulate and witty member of Council’s unofficial opposition (goodness knows she doesn’t have much competition), but her positions rarely seem authentically her own but rather products of ideology or focused lobbying efforts. (Almost every time I have attended a Council meeting, I have seen her at the back of the gallery chatting away with lobbyists.)
A free box of sanitizers for the Councillor for Ward 16.
On Monday, follow the Council debate on Twitter at #TOCouncil and view the live video feed at Rogerstv.com.
