Mayor Sandra Masters responded to a letter sent to herself and Regina city council on Wednesday that challenged her claim of sexism against councillors Dan LeBlanc and Andrew Stevens.
Masters said she currently has no plans to speak with the group who sent the letter and said that many of those who have their signature on the letter have spoken to city council as delegates in the past and that she has heard many of their concerns.
"I think the distraction it has garnered has been detrimental and to say a massive distraction would be an understatement, from both the good work that is being undertaken and as a massive amount of work that still needs to be undertaken," Masters said.
The comments came after more than 100 women and non-binary people pinned a letter to Masters and council that read, “Ending houselessness is feminist.”
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Masters said she respects the opinions of all involved.
“I respect the fact that they get to have their opinion, but I also respect the fact that I have an opinion,” she said.
The group delivered the letter to city hall on Friday, defending Stevens and LeBlanc’s push to fund the city’s current housing crisis.
The letter stated that ending houselessness in Regina is feminist and said the councillors are committed to engaging honestly with community members in their respective wards.
Last year, the two councillors filed an unsuccessful lawsuit against Regina’s city manager Niki Anderson in an effort to include funding for houselessness in the city’s budget.
At the time Masters said the lawsuit had tones of sexism in it.
“It’s reasonable to assume that it undermines her reputation and it undermines her ability to be successful in a new community,” Masters said of Anderson following the lawsuit.
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Anderson herself said that she felt intimidated by both LeBlanc and Stevens and said her reputation was tarnished which also led to a negative response towards her and others on social media.
“Professional criticism based on fact is fair game. Personal attacks based on lies, distorted information and conspiracy theories is not,” Anderson said during a news conference in Feb. 9.
Anderson was asked on Wednesday if she had filed a harassment complaint against councillors LeBlanc and Stevens and said it was not something she felt obligated to answer.
“I don’t think really I owe it to anyone to answer that question,” Anderson said.
“What I would say though is I did see something in the media from one of the councillors saying that they felt perhaps that my news release on Feb. 8 came from the fall out of male media asking a male councillor if I felt harassed.”
Anderson said she felt that she was accused of trying to file a complaint in a covert way through her news release which was not her intent at all.
“I think that that was a really horrible thing to say in public, ground on nothing. That was not my intent at all, my intent was that I was tired of not having a voice and having everyone speak for me,” Anderson said.
Anderson said if she does file a complaint that information on it will come out in due time.
Masters said she fully supports working towards ending homelessness, adding that it can be done while also being a feminist.
Masters said she also still believes the actions by Stevens and LeBlanc to try and reach those goals had sexist undertones.
With files from CTV News' Drew Postey.
