culture". Karygiannis also said "All lives matter." In May 2016, Karygiannis put forward a motion to the Toronto City Council to recognize the Pontian Greek genocide. The motion said that "450,000–750,000 Pontian and Anatolian Greeks were executed". Removal from office On November 6, 2019, Karygiannis was removed as a member of City Council for Ward 22 due to misspending on the supplementary financial statement of his 2018 election. The Municipal Elections Act permitted a maximum of 10 per cent of total funds ($6,120.80) to be spent for "parties and other expressions of appreciation" in Ward 22 after election day; Karygiannis exceeded this limit by $25,962.70. Karygiannis argued that the expense was an inadvertent clerical error, which represented a legitimate and legal expense that was simply miscategorized in the wrong line item. On November 25, Justice William Chalmers of the Ontario Superior Court ruled that Karygiannis's explanation was acceptable and that he could retake office immediately. Karygiannis returned to City Hall and resumed his work as a councillor the next day. On December 2, 2019, Toronto resident Adam Chaleff filed an appeal of the decision. On June 24, 2020, the Court of Appeal overturned the Superior Court's ruling stating that Karygiannis had "not clearly demonstrated to this court that this was a mere 'clerical error'" and he was removed from office for a second time. On August 5, 2020, a stay on the decision was granted by the Ontario Court of Appeal while Karygiannis appealed the decision to the Supreme Court of Canada, thereby reinstating him as councillor. The Supreme Court declined to give Karygiannis leave to appeal on September 24, 2020; therefore the Court of Appeal decision was upheld and he was removed from office. Controversies On February 22, 2011, Jim Karygiannis joined a protest rally of the Armenian Youth Federation by the Embassy of Azerbaijan in Ottawa timed to the anniversary of the Nagorno-Karabakh separatist movement in Azerbaijan. During his four-minute speech, he called for the Azerbaijani ambassador Farid Shafiyev to be stripped of his diplomatic privileges and leave Canada. Shafiyev reacted by saying Karygiannis had "crossed the line of civility and decency and used the language of the level of street hooliganism." Later another Liberal multiculturalism critic Rob Oliphant in a telephone call to Shafiyev expressed his regret about his colleague's statement and added that Karygiannis's words did not represent the attitudes of the Liberal Party. In August