Deputy Mayor Matt Estabrooks

Tantramar’s Deputy Mayor says the harassment of public officials has become “alarmingly normalized with widespread verbal and online abuse creating fear, emotional fatigue and discouraging public service participation.”

Matt Estabrooks made the comment Monday during town council discussion of a symposium that he attended along with Mayor Andrew Black and Councillor Allison Butcher earlier this month in Fredericton.

The symposium on the harassment and intimidation of elected municipal officials was jointly sponsored by the Union of Municipalities of New Brunswick and the provincial Association of Francophone Municipalities.

“I have personally experienced several instances of inappropriate behaviour both from the public and unfortunately even from other elected officials as well,” Estabrooks said, “involving shouting and intimidation both in council chambers and at other municipal events, even so far as shouting at my family and I while at home in my own yard on a weeknight.”

The deputy mayor also mentioned receiving “reams of passive-aggressive e-mails to filter through, taking shots at you, questioning your morals or ethical positions on issues of the day.”

He added it’s no wonder that people who care about their communities are discouraged from serving as elected officials.

Estabrooks also said it’s wrong for members of council to spread gossip or hearsay about their colleagues.

“It is not okay to tear your colleagues down either when in conversation with constituents or with other elected officials even with other levels of government,” he said.

“I have had these situations arise and it is alarming. This behaviour is not okay. It is not acceptable and it needs to stop.”

Estabrooks responded to an e-mail from Warktimes asking what issues prompted the harassment he had experienced, by saying he would prefer not to comment further.

Survey results

A survey conducted for the symposium by the consulting firm Strategic Steps asked 48 English-speaking locally elected officials in New Brunswick and 30 French-speaking ones if they had ever experienced any kind of abuse/harassment in the course of their council roles:

The elected officials were also asked how often they had experienced any type of abuse or harassment:

More than 80% of those who had experienced abuse or harassment said it was verbal and came mainly from the public on social media or other online platforms, but just over 24% said it came from a member of council and 3.7% said it came from the mayor.

In its report, Strategic Steps says it’s difficult to manage abuse from the public partly because users of social media are able to comment anonymously and are not regulated by those online platforms.

It adds that “there is a strong undercurrent of elected officials abusing or harassing each other, which is something that is intended to be managed under the (Council) Code of Conduct, but the tools available to members of Council are often insufficient, particularly when abuse is framed as being part of political debate.”

The report points to legislation in Quebec that provides penalties for those who harass elected officials.

It says that Ontario and British Columbia also have external agencies and tribunals with the power to order compensation and other restitution for harassment of elected officials, but “the Atlantic provinces, including New Brunswick, have only basic complaint processes with little authority to hold violators accountable.”

To read the survey report, click here.

Code of conduct complaints must be dealt with in public

Tantramar Mayor Andrew Black

Mayor Black reported that during the symposium in Fredericton, the first day started by discussing harassment toward elected officials by members of the public, but on the second day the concerns shifted.

“We pretty much were only talking about harassment and incivility within our own councils, which was pretty telling,” he said.

Black said one mayor began discussing how code of conduct complaints were always dealt with behind closed doors.

Black said he stood up to say it would be better to deal with such complaints in public to give them a full airing.

“I said, it’s a real shame that we can’t do that,” whereupon, he said, a member of the new Local Governance Commission warned elected officials at the symposium that Code of Conduct complaints must be dealt with in public.

“I was shocked by that, and I think that pretty much every other single person in the room was shocked by that,” he said.

Black said the Commission, which has the power to investigate complaints and conflicts of interest, has since followed up with an advisory that states:

It has come to our attention that many local government councils are discussing and rendering decisions on code of conduct and conflict of interest complaints in closed meetings. The Commission has also viewed media reports about local governments classifying elected officials (mayors and councillors) as employees for the purposes of going into closed meetings to discuss and / or vote on alleged code of conduct by-law violations and alleged conflicts of interest provision violations. This is not permitted under section 68 of the Local Governance Act.

To read the full advisory, click here.