A palpable chill cast over those assembled in the gallery as acting chair/mayor and councillor Rob Southcott opened the April 2 City of Powell River Committee of the Whole meeting.
Southcott said: “In recent meetings there have been uninvited interruptions that have occurred during the proceedings of council’s meeting, and they have been handled in various ways. But today, if that happens…I will be stopping our meeting and inviting whomever is that uninvited contributor to leave the chambers.
“If that doesn’t happen, I will be requesting that a peace officer join us to assist. It is extremely important to the electorate of this city that proceedings of this council be held with decorum and in order. And this council owes it to the people who have elected us to conduct our business responsibly, in that way.”
Thus, Southcott silenced a packed gallery. Uninvited interruptions are usually clapping, quiet cheers and susurrations.
I have been a regular attendee of those public chambers for more than 20 years, and for the most part the chambers have been empty except when a development permit is proposed; then the room will fill with the local who’s who of developers to see how the climate for development is inclined.
Although committee and council meeting times were changed from 9 am and 1 pm to 3:30 and 7 pm to allow citizens to come and participate, chairs remained unfilled. Indeed, I recall, just before those COVID-19 times, councillor Southcott publicly mused as to why no one ever came to council meetings.
And then, April 2, upon looking down from the dais, at a gallery filled with citizens wearing IheartPR buttons, councillor Southcott delivered a censure. Ironically, in the same meeting former Newfoundland premier Brian Peckford was part of a delegation to remind council to celebrate the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms.
Further to the filled chairs, RCMP officers have been such a regular feature we’re almost on a first-name basis. Councillors, please explain your paranoia. Do you feel attacked when those whom you represent disagree with you?
If this weren’t enough, there was an item on the agenda, item 4.2, where councillor Trina Isakson put a motion forward that council name three persons to act as liaisons between Victoria and “other local governments” to force negotiations which appear to be stalled by inert process.
The math? A provisional government will push things along while citizens keep silent or face arrest.
Democracy? Certainly not a council with the cheerful willingness to listen to citizens. I suggest council, rather than bullying citizens with proclamations from the dais to be silent, get back to basics: fixing streets, public safety, infrastructure repairs and rehabilitation of/moving local city-born criminals into the various programs that will aid them to become productive members of society. Besides there are not enough paddy wagons in town to round up all the dissidents filling the gallery.
Roger Whittaker is a Powell River resident.
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