Greater Sudbury councillors Michael Vagnini and Gerry Montpellier will be holding a second press conference today to reveal what they say are recent developments regarding harassment accusations.
Sudbury.com will livestream the meeting, which is being held at the Steelworkers Hall on Brady Street, beginning at 1:30 p.m.
"Current actions by the city have made it necessary to reveal that the city has summonsed private citizens for confidential interrogations because they questioned the Fire and Paramedic Services Optimization Plan in public," said a press release from Vagnini, the councillor for Ward 2.
"(The citizens) are prepared to share information they have previously held confidential."
While details have not formally been made public, the harassment case is related to the controversial fire optimization proposal presented last spring by former Fire Chief Trevor Bain. The plan would have harmonized fire response times across the city, but involved reducing the number of volunteer firefighters and hiring dozens more full-time firefighters.
Bain led public consultations on the controversial plan, which was ultimately shelved by city council. Bain was later dismissed when it emerged three volunteer firefighters were fired because of social media posts opposing the plan.
The harassment complaint was filed by the Sudbury Professional Fire Fighters Association on Bain's behalf. Union President Kris Volpel has said the union first complained to the city in March regarding the actions of some councillors toward Bain during the fire optimization meetings.
In October, the Ministry of Labour directed Greater Sudbury to investigate the complaint, to keep all documents relevant to the case and to ensure training requirements are adhered to.
The pair held a press conference on Dec. 19, bringing up suspicions that email and Facebook accounts may have been compromised in the midst of investigations.
