The Council’s Handling of the Last Two Meetings Where The Israeli-Palestinian Issue Made a Presence Were Downers, Indeed!
The Region’s Integrity Commissioner Has Now Been Directed to Review the Video of the Most Turbulent January 25th Meeting and Develop a Training Session for Regional Councillors
A News Commentary by Doug Draper
Posted February 27th, 2024 on Niagara At Large
Niagara’s Regional Headquarters in Thorold
There was a time when this reporter looked forward to covering Niagara Regional Council meetings.
I am sure that many of you out there will find that at least a little bit strange. Some may even be asking; ‘What kind of social life does this guy have?’
Seriously though, there was a time when you could look forward to going to a meeting of Niagara Regional Council and to coming out the other end without feeling disappointed, troubled and depressed over what was unfolding while you were there.
But that was long ago and far away, going back at least as far as the late-1990s up to 2014 when Debbie Zimmerman, followed by Gary Burroughs served one after the other as Niagara Regional Chair.
Then came the years 2014 to 2018 when then-Regional Chair Al Caslin and his cabal made up of a substantial number of regional councillors, supported by a handful of Region’s most powerful senior administrators, took us to dark and disturbing places just about every month they were there.
There was what seemed like the return of some sunshine and sanity in the final weeks of 2018 when Caslin and most of his cabal were swept from office and former St. Catharines Liberal MPP Jim Bradley was elected to serve as Regional Chair by a council made up of quite a number of new faces.
Niagara Regional Chair Jim Bradley,
Then came the inaugural meeting of a new term of Regional Council in November of2022 when instead of showing some courage and challenging Ontario Premier Doug Ford’s unilateral move to interfere in our local democracy by appointing Jim Bradley to another term as Chair rather than allow regional councillors elected by we, the people, do what regional councillors have done for more than 50 years – let them make the final decision over who among them serves as Chair for the next four years.
Instead of showing some spine and sending a message to Ford that they are going to stand up for local democracy when it comes to who chooses Niagara’s Regional Chair, a majority on the newly-inaugurated council rolled over and played dead on the premise that ‘municipalities are creatures’ of the province, so Ford can barge in and appoint anyone he wants.
Since then, we’ve witnessed the Regional Council passing two of the highest property tax increases in the regional government’s 54 year history. In the process, we have witnessed the Region taking over public transit systems across Niagara, only to nickel and dime transit services at budget time rather than build them as our single most important mode of transportation for the future.
And most recently, at Regional Council meetings on January 25th of this year and again, to some extent this February 22nd, those who dared to attend or tune in on-line, were treated to a ‘turn over all the tables and chairs’ specter of councillors still deciding what to do about a motion calling for a ceasefire in the ongoing Israeli-Hamas and about a decision all but two of the councillors made at the first meeting not to allow 18 citizens, most of them of Palestinian descent, to stand before the council and speak.
At the second meeting on February 22nd, more than a few dozen people from the Palestinian community showed up again at the Niagara Regional headquarters where about half a dozen security officers (usually at a meeting there are only one or two) greeted them as they entered the lobby.
The officers, in fairness to them and from what I can see, behaved fairly and professionally to everyone who entered and wanted to take a seat in the gallery of the council chambers.
However, it wasn’t too long after the meeting began and Chair Bradley made his usual opening remarks that the shouting began.
“When are you going to apologize,” one member of the Palestinian contingent, still angry about not being allowed to speak at the January 25th meeting, shouted to regional councillors from the gallery. “We are not numbers. We are human beings. … There is genocide happening. … Shame on you,” shouted others.
At least one member of the group held up a sign quoting reports that at least 25,000 Palestinian civilians – men, women and children – have died in the Gaza Strip since Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu declared war early last October after members of an outlaw Palestinian group called Hamas entered Israel and brutally slaughtered more than 1,000 Israeli civilians and took more than 200 others hostage.
As the shouting continued, Bradley had no choice but to do a little gavel banging, which up to recently has not been his style, and to tell those who were doing it that they would be removed from the chambers if they continued.
Most of the group then left the chambers to hold a vigil outside. But one of the people who remained behind held up a protest sign aimed a member of the Region’s staff. That had almost every member of the Region’s council passing a motion ordering what they called the “disparaging” sign be taken down because it constituted a form of “harassment.”
Before the meeting was over Diana Huson, a Regional Councillor from Pelham, received almost unanimous support for a motion tabled by her and seconded by Niagara Falls Regional Councillor Joyce Morocco that calls on the Region’s Integrity Commissioner, lawyer Michael Maynard, to review a tape of the bedlam at the January 25th meeting for the purposes of making a ruling on what went down there, and to develop a training session for regional councillors.
Niagara Regional Councillor for Pelham, Diana Huson
Asked what this upcoming training session might be all about, Huson informed Niagara At Large in an email that “referring the minutes and video of the meeting to the Integrity Commissioner will allow us to reflect on our policies and practices but also improve upon the delivery of our meetings or our interactions with the public.”
“Engaging with the Integrity Commissioner (IC) for this type of training is not only in order,” Huson added, “it is appropriate, since the IC is also the body that advises Council and Councillors on matters of procedure and also adjudicates code of conduct issues.
“I think the meeting provides an opportunity to learn and seek clarity on how we can improve. I would encourage any councillor who felt frustrated with the proceedings to attend and ask questions. There’s always an opportunity to grow and develop in one’s field or profession.”
Haley Bateman, the St. Catharines Regional Councillor who tried to table the ceasefire motion at the January 25th meeting before it was blocked by fellow St. Catharines Regional Councillors Mat Siscoe (also St. Catharines’ mayor) and Laura Ip, and before 18 members of the public who were listed to make presentations to the council were barred from speaking, had a different take on the Huson/Morocco motion.
St. Catharines Regional Coucnillor Haley Bateman
“It was not clear to me about why Councillor Huson would refer meeting minutes to an IC, a costly process that should be reserved as a last resort,” Bateman said. “There is a process in place for accessing an IC and Council is not following it. Councillor Huson and Morocco’s motion is an unabashed waste of taxpayer money.”
There is little doubt that the tasks referred to the Integrity Commissioner will prove costly since lawyers these days charge hundreds of dollars per hour for their services. If and when the final tally for this is made public, many who live and pay taxes in this region might well ask what else this money could have been used for.
Then again, it is hard to argue against offering people, including members of Regional Council, some training if, indeed, it helps them to do a better job.
One can’t help but wonder though if any kind of training would lead this Regional Council to do something that may very well have reduced the amount of disappointment and anger it is no receiving from the Palestinian community.
That something was and is at least allowing members of this community to speak.
St. Catharines Mayor and Niagara Regional Councillor Mat Siscoe
Siscoe and others on the council who supported his move to keep Bateman’s motion calling for a ceasefire from being tabled, may be right in his argument that the ongoing Israeli-Palestinian conflict is one that may trigger further divisions in the Niagara community and that it is a matter that it is a foreign affairs matter that falls outside of business municipal councils should be dealing with.
But if that’s the case, then why, two years ago, did Niagara’s Regional Council pass a motion supporting Ukraine after the attack from Russia?
Why, as recently as last October, did the Region’s Chair, Jim Bradley, circulate a public statement supporting Israel after the horrific Hamas offensive and why did he order that the Region’s headquarters be lit up in in the colours of the Israeli flag – white and blue – just as Bateman’s motion ask for the headquarters to be lit up in the colours of the Palestinian flag, in recognition of growing number of civilians suffering and dying in the Gaza Strip?
Why couldn’t the Regional Council allow members of a Palestinian community that already feel that they have been marginalized – that they have been kicked to the curb (as in shoved off land where they lived by so-called “settlers), which is what so many of them say they have seen and in some cases, experienced happening for decades now, to their friends and families back in Gaza and the West Bank – at least be given the opportunity to speak?
Why couldn’t Bateman’s motion for a ceasefire at least been debated? Perhaps Bateman would have been satisfied with changes or amendments may have wanted to make to it.
When people feel marginalized, when they feel that their opportunity to have a voice has been taken away from them, they may begin to shout, as some did at the January 25th and February 22nd meetings. Regional Councillors like Laura Ip, who is Chair of the Region’s Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Advisory Committee, should know that.
If they have any amount of experience as public servants, our Regional Councillors shouldn’t necessarily need training to understand any of this.
Perhaps Bateman’s motion would have been defeated in the end anyway, but maybe, just maybe, and aside from any training the councillors receive from a session served up by the Integrity Commissioner, they may have learned something from listening to these people too.
It is depressing enough that this portrait of former Niagara Regional Chair Al Caslin is now hanging in the lobby of the Region’s headquarters.
Finally, and as far as how divisive the issue of a ceasefire it, mayors for the cities of Toronto, Hamilton, Mississauga and London, Ontario, if not more across the province, went on record calling for a ceasefire in the Israeli-Hamas War as far back November of last year.
So I left the Regional Council chambers at the end of the February 22nd meeting and walked past a portrait of former regional chair Al Caslin, hanging from a wall in the lobby, feeling more depressed than I ever remember feeling pre-2014 when Caslin and his cabal took the reins.
At the very least, it will probably have me going back to watching future Regional Council meetings online at home rather than venturing anywhere near that building.
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Doug Draper, Niagara At Large
Niagara At Large has posted this Hamilton CHCH TV report on the Niagara Regional meeting chaos before, but we are putting it on again in case you missed it. To watch, simply click on the screen immediately below –
For related stories, click on the following links –
January 25th Niagara Regional Council Meeting Was A Disgrace | Niagara At Large
Chair Bradley Issues Statement on Public’s Support of Ukraine – 101.1 More FM (101morefm.ca)
Support for Ukraine continues to pour out of Niagara Region | insauga
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