A Kingston city councillor garnered some attention with a now deleted Facebook post that raised suspicion about two young men offering window washing services in the Cataraqui-Woods area.
The post, which was made by Loyalist-Cataraqui councillor Paul Chaves, was saved and shared on Reddit before the councillor deleted it.
In the post shared to a community Facebook group, Chaves says he questioned the two young men about their credentials, and told them he’d be reporting them to bylaw, seeking out further information from others in the group that he could take to bylaw.
“I just had a couple young gentleman come to my door and offer to wash my windows. I asked them if they had a peddlers licence,” Chaves wrote.
“I am sharing this because there are a number of questionable businesses which go door to door… if anyone happens to get a copy of their business card, I would be interested in getting the extra information to share with bylaw.”
Chaves said that one of the two young men told him they had spoken with police who told them what they were doing was fine, but the councillor insisted that based on the city bylaw the two must have a peddlers licence and Canadian Police Information Centre (CPIC) check completed.
One of the two young men involved in the interaction, who asked to remain anonymous, said he and his friend have been offering window washing in the neighbourhood to earn some money through the summer, and before the interaction with Chaves had not faced any animosity.
He said the councillor continued to insist they need a peddlers licence, but that it felt like he was trying to intimidate them.
“My friend was just saying like, he’s talked to the police and he’s talked to many people and they said like, it’s fine, and he didn’t think we need a license because we’re such a young age,” he said of the interaction.
“Everything we kept saying, he just said you still need a peddler’s license… And he’s like, you could get in trouble for this, I could contact the city, bylaws, just stuff we’ve never heard before… like trying to bully us.”
The young man confirmed that both he and his friend are 16 years old, and said they were worried they might be arrested.
He says they have continued to offer window washing services since the interaction with their city councillor, and have not experienced any issues with other residents.
Overall, he said that based on the way he and his friend were spoken to, he didn’t have a great first impression of Chaves.
“As a councillor, if you want a better community you should know how to deal with the people living there, I guess, in a professional and proper way,” he said.
Bylaw did not confirm whether they received a complaint from Chaves, or if the window washing business is something they would follow up on.
Councillor Chaves did not return requests for comment.
