A couple of city councilors in Prince George, BC, are looking for answers after saying that two RCMP officers monitored a public meeting at the City Council without their knowledge.
It happened on Wednesday night during a review of the Official Community Plan of the city, which was open to public comments.
Lawyer Trudy Klassen said that during the meeting he noticed that two people “sneak in the back”, and then she and her companion condemn. Brian Skakun asked the city staff about who they were.
It was then that he discovered that there were two RCMP officers, by uniforms, who had attended at the request of the city staff due to security problems.
“I feel that this was a serious betrayal of trust,” Klasen said, adding that he had heard from public members that they were upset to discover that they were being treated as a threat. “If this were a concern … why were the mayor and the Council not reported?”
He also questioned the decision to get two officers out of his regular duties for four hours when, as a councilor, he constantly listens to the police resources stretched and the problems of mischief and crimes that are not addressed as a result.
“This seems to me an unjustified use of police resources,” he said.
Police attended a meeting focused on the protection of Greens space
The meeting was the second of a series of hearings aimed at obtaining public comments on the Official Community Plan (OCP) while under review. The OCP is a document that describes in the planning and use decisions of the Broad Sotos based on the city’s values for different regions.
An area that has been controversial is the protection of the green space within the city, particularly around Ginter’s Meadow, an urban park connected to other unprotected green belts.
For several years, a coalition of citizens with the name of Ginter’s Green Forever has been pressing the City Council to make more to preserve these spaces of development, and it has been told that their best path to follow is through the OCP. As a result, dozens of followers have come to public audiences around the plan, with feedback sessions that last several hours.
While these members are passionate, Klassen said that he has never felt intimidated or threatened by the people who speak at meetings, and that the presence of RCMP in the meetings is concerned at meetings sends the wrong message.
“They have spent so much time and energy,” he said. Then, being “treated as a threat,” he said, “it is not surprising that people have lost faith in government.”
City says that the police presence was caution
In an email -sent answer, a city spokesman confirmed that RCMP members were there at the request of the city staff as a “precautionary measure, not as an answer to a specific threat.” They did not say why the mayor and the Council were not informed of the decision or provided any specific reason why the police were needed.
“After the first official public hearing of the Community Plan, the staff raised concerns about security, and the city asked with the RCMP about the support that could be offered for the second public hearing date,” the spokesman wrote.
“This decision was made in the interest of guaranteeing the safety of all attendees.”
The email said that RCMP officers often attend the city events in which a “great assistance” is expected, and that is “due to the concerns raised about the problems experienced in similar events in other communities.”
He said that the presence of RCMP was intended to “be a responsible measure to maintain a safe environment for all, while preserving the open and cozy atmosphere that public audiences must foster.”
However, Klassen said he had the opposite effect, since he heard some members of the public who felt intimidated by the men sitting in the area of the public audience and expressed even more concern after learning that they were RCMP.
“There is the feeling that ‘My God, I shouldn’t have bothered,” he said. “He gets stained on the public.”
Requested review
CBC News has communicated with RCMP for your response. It has also communicated with other councilors of the city through its emails of the City Council.
In a Facebook publication, Coun. Skakun said he was “annoying and sad” for the police presence at the meeting, and the lack of transparency around the decision.
“I really think this will shake public trust in the City Council, at least in the short term,” he wrote.
Klassen said he feels the same and is looking for more responses from the city staff about how the decision was made. She said that, so far, the answers received are inadequate.
“I am not satisfied at all with the answer,” he said.
