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Clarington councillor charged with uttering threats over voicemail she says was AI | CBC News
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A municipal councillor from Clarington, Ont., is facing criminal charges over alleged threats made in a voicemail involving a potential mayoral candidate, police say.
Coun. Corinna Traill has previously denied making any threats, saying the voicemail in question was generated using artificial intelligence.
In a news release issued Wednesday, Peterborough police said the Ward 3 councillor had been arrested and charged with two counts of uttering threats.
Traill was released on a promise to appear and is slated to be back in court in January.
In a social media post from September, former mayoral candidate and retired police officer Tom Dingwall alleged that in August, he received a voicemail from Traill telling him to stay out of next year’s mayoral race to allow a friend of hers to “run unencumbered.”
Dingwall went on to say that the message “made it clear” that if he did not, he would be killed and his wife would be sexually assaulted.
The charges came as a “relief,” Dingwall told CBC News on Wednesday.
“It has impacted our family and it has impacted my wife and it is a completely bizarre situation,” he said. “I certainly didn’t expect it, but I’m also not going to tolerate it.”
Dingwall said he is requesting that Traill step down from council.
“To be clear, no elected official, paid to represent us, should utilize intimidation or threats to dissuade anyone from pursuing elected office or engaging in public service, especially to the benefit of their friend,” he wrote on social media.
Traill declined to comment to CBC News, noting the issue is being resolved in court.
But the councillor previously issued her own statement about the situation in September, saying “unequivocally” that she did not leave the message.
“I have been advised that artificial intelligence technology was involved,” she wrote. “Portions of the voicemail were my voice, but other parts were artificially generated.”
Traill went on to say that she respects the investigative process and planned to fully cooperate so what happened could be established.
“It is important that residents have confidence in the outcome, and I share in the community’s desire for clarity and truth,” she wrote.
In a statement issued Wednesday, Clarington Mayor Adrian Foster noted the arrest and said that it is important to allow the justice system to determine the outcome of the case.
“I want to affirm to residents that Clarington Council is focused on serving our community and we will continue to do so,” he said. “As this is an ongoing matter before the courts, the Municipality of Clarington cannot make any further comments at this time.”
The American Library Association’s list of the most frequently challenged books of 2025 includes Sold by Patricia McCormick, The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky and Maia Kobabe’s Gender Queer: A Memoir.
American Library Association
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American Library Association
The American Library Association has released its annual list of the most commonly challenged books at libraries across the United States.
According to the ALA, the 11 most frequently targeted books include several tied titles. They are:
1. Sold by Patricia McCormick
2. The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky
3. Gender Queer: A Memoir by Maia Kobabe
4. Empire of Storms by Sarah J. Maas
5. (tie) Last Night at the Telegraph Club by Malinda Lo
5. (tie) Tricks by Ellen Hopkins
7. A Court of Thorns and Roses by Sarah J. Maas
8. (tie) A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess
8. (tie) Identical by Ellen Hopkins
8. (tie) Looking for Alaska by John Green
8. (tie) Storm and Fury by Jennifer L. Armentrout
Many of these individual titles also appear on a 2024-25 report issued last October by PEN America, a separate group dedicated to free expression, which looked at book challenges and bans specifically within public schools.
The ALA says that it documented 4,235 unique titles being challenged in 2025 – the second-highest year on record for library challenges. (The highest ever was in 2023, with 4,240 challenges documented – only five more than in this most recent year.)
According to the ALA, 40% of the materials challenged in 2025 were representations of LGBTQ+ people and those of people of color.
In all, the ALA documented 713 attempts across the United States in 2025 to censor library materials and services; 487 of those challenges targeted books.
According to the ALA, 92% of all book challenges to libraries came from “pressure groups,” government officials and local decision makers. While 20.8% came from pressure groups such as Moms for Liberty (as the ALA cited in an email to NPR), 70.9% of challenges originated with government officials and other “decision makers,” such as local board officials or administrators.
In a more detailed breakdown, the ALA notes that 31% of challenges came from elected government officials and and 40% from board members or administrators. In its full report, the ALA states that only 2.7% of such challenges originated with parents, and 1.4% with individual library users.
Fifty-one percent of challenges were attempted at public libraries, and 37% involved school libraries. The remaining challenges of 2025 targeted school curriculums and higher education.
The ALA defines a book “ban” as the removal of materials, including books, from a library. A “challenge,” in this organization’s definition, is an attempt to have a library resource removed, or access to it restricted.
The ALA is a non-partisan, nonprofit organization dedicated to American libraries and librarians.
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Bruce Bennett, Arnold Turner, NPR/Getty Images, NPR
This week, Phil Pritchard, NHL’s Keeper of the Stanley Cup, joins us to about taking the cup jet-skiing and panelists Alonzo Bodden, Adam Burke, and Dulcé Sloan beef with the Pope and get misdiagnosed.
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