February 12, 2025, 11:33 am
In June 2024, Chris Moise set his sights on another cherished downtown institution: the beloved Moss Park Arena. Citing concerns that the board was not ‘diverse enough,’ Moise attempted to strong-arm the board into resigning. He then filed a motion to explore dismantling the arena’s long-standing governance structure, proposing that it be taken over by Parks and Recreation. This move threatened to undermine decades of community-building and disrupt the arena’s tradition of enhanced programming, including skating clubs, house leagues, and co-ed hockey schools. In a Toronto Sun article, board members expressed frustration, stating that Moise ‘treated them like crap.’
By January 2025, after facing backlash over his tactics, Moise amended the motion to preserve the governance model. However, he imposed burdensome new responsibilities on the board—well beyond their mandate and those of other similar board-run rinks. Shortly thereafter Moise introduced another motion to City Council, seeking to oust all current members of the Moss Park Arena board and stack them with his own appointees, including those associated with developers and political donors – circumventing the standard process for board nominations.
This aggressive campaign against a beloved community institution highlighted Moise’s troubling use of council powers. Weaponizing his position to dismantle community-led boards was a predatory approach that ran counter to the principles of collaboration and respect that should define an elected official’s relationship with their constituents.
IntegrityTO immediately sprang into action galvanizing community members into a massive letter writing campaign in support of this beloved arena and their trusted board members. We also delivered compelling deputations at the Executive Committee appealing directly to Mayor Chow that Moise’s predatory approach was unbefitting of an elected official.
Our efforts proved successful. Moise abandoned his motion to turn Moss Park Arena over to Parks and Rec, and later withdrew his secondary motion to fire all the board members. He was later admonished by his colleague Councillor Paula Fletcher for this bad faith motions.