Philadelphia
PHILADELPHIA – Counsel for the City of Philadelphia and Mayor Jim Kenney are seeking to dismiss a discrimination complaint from Philadelphia City Council member Mark Squilla and local Italian-American groups over Kenney’s removal of Columbus Day as an observed city holiday, arguing it lacks any factual basis.
The Conference of Presidents of Major Italian American Organizations, Inc. of Yonkers, N.Y., plus Squilla, the 1492 Society and Jody Della Barba, all of Philadelphia, first filed suit in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania on April 6 versus the City and Kenney.
The suit assailed the City and Kenney as having engaged in “continued, unrelenting, and intentionally discriminatory acts” against Italian-Americans – punctuated by Kenney’s Executive Order 2-21, which replaced Columbus Day as an official City holiday with Indigenous Peoples Day.