A Sarnia councilor is clarifying he doesn’t condone violence against members of city council, after “liking” posts on Facebook calling for members to be lynched.
A Sarnia councilor is clarifying he doesn’t condone violence against members of city council, after “liking” posts on Facebook calling for members to be lynched.
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“I don’t condone that whatsoever,” said Bill Dennis.
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Screenshots sent to The Observer show Dennis among the people who gave a thumbs-up to comments — on a March 7 post Dennis made about discussing security in council chambers — calling for unnamed, “socialist” members of council to be lynched in the streets.
The comments were not visible on Dennis’ page days later, but they may have been hidden automatically because the main comment included profanity, the councilor said.
Dennis said he “likes” most of the comments he gets on his Facebook page, not to endorse what’s being said, but to show he’s engaged.
“I pretty much ‘like’ everything,” he said, adding he “probably didn’t even read” the comments prior, and often puts a thumbs-up on comments he doesn’t agree with.
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“If I liked it, it was done in error,” he said, adding “if you think for one minute that me, because I liked something I’m endorsing it, that’s crazy.”
Dennis also interacted with another comment that seemed to allude to the potential for Dennis to be disciplined.
Council recently abruptly adjourned without passing bylaws — a makeup meeting is set for March 18 — after Dennis refused to yield the floor and angrily confronted others on council.
Dennis’ reply to the Facebook comment — “I very, very rarely reply to anything,” he said — includes a photo of Russell Crowe from the movie Gladiator, captioned, “At my signal, unleash hell.”
Dennis said he’s “100 per cent, absolutely not” calling for violence.
“It’s implying that I’m a fighter,” he said about his message behind the meme.
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“There’s nothing they can do to me. If their intention is to get me to quit or kick me off of council, my response is they can pound salt.”
Dennis was asked several times to verify his interactions with the posts — copies of the screenshots were shared with Dennis — are real and eventually said at least one is “definitely highly likely.”
Dennis instead focused his answers on his personal efforts for the city, called others on council either too long-serving — “we need young blood,” he said — or “far-left socialists or communists that don’t know the first thing about business,” and pointed out he’s faced threats from members of the public, and vandalism to his house and vehicles.
“There’s no politician in this city that has been threatened more than me,” he said.
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Dennis, who again seemed focused on campaigning against Mike Bradley for mayor in 2026, said “the city has gone to shambles,” that people are “pissed off,” and that he sees himself as a system-disrupting politician, “a Molotov cocktail that the people are throwing at the messed up system.”
His interactions on social media are “a nothing-burger,” he said.
Coun. Brian White, who ran for the provincial and federal NDP before being elected to city council, said his children saw “a colleague supporting calls for violence against their father, and that is not acceptable.”
The language is hurtful and makes people hesitate who might otherwise run for office, he said.
“All I can think is how sad it is that political discourse has degraded to that level,” he said, adding “the type of publicity that our city is getting right now is having a very serious negative impact on our ability to grow and thrive .”
Bradley said liking the comments equates to “Dennis advocating violence against council members.”
He added “it’s unbelievable how the council agendas have become about the individual councilor and not about the city.”
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