Coun. Sonny Spina weighs in on group-chat allegations

It's official.

As of today, SooToday has finally heard from the last of Ward 4 Coun. Stephan Kinach's council colleagues.

They all claim to know nothing about Kinach's allegation that at least four of them – possibly as many as six – participate in secret group chats during council meetings.

The last hold-out in getting back to us was Ward 1 Coun. Sonny Spina.

Spina sent this Canada Day response to Kinach's claim that councillors were group-chatting during last Monday's council discussion of a controversial downtown parking issue:

Good morning,

My apologies for the late reply. I’ve been in the remote wilderness for several days with no access to phone or internet service. I’m just getting back to things now. 

The only group chat conversation I see, is one on April 18th where the mayor thanked me and a few other councillors for our participation in a workshop with Garden River First Nation that day.  

I don’t have anything from the Monday night meeting you asked about. 

Have a great Canada Day – Sonny

Coun. Spina had what seemed a good reason for not responding to us earlier.

His Facebook page shows that since Friday, he'd been participating in the 2024 Spartan Death Race in the challenging and remote Green Mountain terrain around Pittsfield, Vermont, population 504.

It's a murderous three-day competition designed to test both body and mind.

The race is changed every year to make it unpredictable.

According to an account of the first 24 hours of this year's race published by muscleandfitness.com, Spina would have been required to break up wooden debris to fit into a dumpster, sew a number onto his competitor's bib using a bone needle and yarn, and solve a Rubik's cube puzzle while partly submerged in pond water.

Those challenges were on top of the endless hours of hill-running, swamp-crawling, fireman carries and wheelbarrows common in extreme endurance races.

Informed today by SooToday that Mayor Shoemaker and all his fellow councillors see no merit in his accusations, Coun. Kinach wasn't backing off an inch.

"What I believe I saw is a group chat," he insisted.

"The amount of messages, timing of phones buzzing and people texting back. If it is not a group chat there were still messages being exchanged between various councillors simultaneously as a sidebar about the agenda item before and after the vote," he said.

A town hall-type public meeting on the parking controversy has been called for Thursday, July 4.

The meeting is being organized by the Downtown Association's parking committee.

It will take place from 5:15 p.m. to 7:15 p.m. at Mane Street Cafe and Lounge, 626 Queen St. East.

The meeting will be open to the public and Downtown Association member businesses and stakeholders will be allowed to ask questions.