London City Hall staffer charged with assault

A high-profile employee at London City Hall has been reassigned after being charged with two counts of assault.

Marcel Marcellin, a former London police officer who made a failed attempt at politics in 2014 and later became a city hall bureaucrat, was working as the lead on London’s UN Safe Cities project at the time the charges were laid.

The safe cities plan is London’s attempt to reduce sexual violence against women. Marcellin has since been taken off the project.

Marcellin’s lawyer, Joseph J. Markson, confirmed to 980 CFPL his client faces two charges from the mid-1990s and has been reassigned at city hall.

“The allegations of assault made on unspecified dates in 1995 and 1996 are agenda-driven and false. Mr. Marcellin places his trust in the justice system and looks forward to the charges being dismissed in due course,” said Markson in a written statement. “Mr. Marcellin understands and accepts his reassignment in the interim.”

Marcellin joined London City Hall in January 2017 and served as Mayor Matt Brown‘s chief of staff from August to November of 2017 before he was named the director of organizational strategy and initiatives.

London city manager Martin Hayward said in a statement to 980 CFPL they learned about the charges over the weekend.

“We are aware that charges have been brought against Marcel Marcellin concerning events that took place in 1996. The City makes adjustments to employee responsibilities as circumstances require,” Hayward wrote.

“In this case, the Safe Cities London initiative has been reassigned within the City Manager’s office. We will continue to review the situation to ensure that all incompatible responsibilities are reassigned. We were made aware of this situation over the weekend and the Safe Cities London initiative was reassigned on Monday.”

Megan Walker, the Executive Director of the London Abused Women’s Centre, told 980 CFPL’s The Craig Needles Show Wednesday morning she’s disappointed  how Hayward framed the issue as a “personal matter” in his statement to the London Free Press.

“Male violence against women should never be considered to be a personal issue. It is a human rights issue, and it’s one of discrimination against women,” she said.

“It angers me because I’ve worked with the city doing training since 1999… and so then to have the city manager come out and say this is a ‘personal issue’ falls completely flat.”

Before working at city hall, Marcellin ran unsuccessfully for the Ontario Liberals in 2014. He finished a distant third behind New Democrat Teresa Armstrong.

Marcellin worked for the London Police Service for 21 years from 1995 to 2016. The former sergeant was appointed as the diversity officer in 2009.

Marcellin taught a diversity course at Fanshawe College’s police foundations program from September 2009 until he started working at city hall.