Mississauga Musings

FORT ERIE MAYOR MOVES TO BAN VIDEOTAPING OF COUNCIL MEETINGS

Readers might remember that in my Blog entry, "FUTURE MISSISSAUGA ...IMAGINE" I'd called the citizens of Fort Erie "lucky" because their town council cared enough about genuine public input into the Bill 130 closed-meeting-investigator issue to invite Ontario Ombudsman, Andre Marin to their last council meeting.

This gave the citizens of Fort Erie the unique experience of learning about transparency and accountability first-hand from Mr. Marin and not funnelled through some PR Spinners. Fort Erie Council took a risk because, face it, Democracy is messy compared to the "efficiency" of a Moved, Seconded, Passed Mississauga.

I still believe that --kudos to Fort Erie council for inviting The Ontario Ombudsman.

By contrast, if municipalities can be put on a scale of respect-and-openness of due process in dealing with the Bill 130 closed-meeting provision, it's a no-brainer to put Fort Erie at the Top of the 445 Ontario municipalities --and The Corporation of the City of Mississauga at the very bottom passing the thing "pro forma" in 16 seconds on Wednesday.

(To be fair, I'm certain that if you inspected the December minutes for the 445 municipal councils, Mississauga would have plenty of Bottom-of-the-Pile company. )

This is such a revealing time. If citizens bothered to look right now they'd peer into the private face of their city halls.)

Yesterday, Fort Erie citizens alerted me to a move by the Fort Erie mayor to ban videotaping of Council meetings by private citizens. This move actually happened last Monday, ironically at the very meeting where Ontario Ombudsman, Andre Marin spoke about transparency and openness.

As the details were relayed to me, after the Ontario Ombudsman was done, there was a "break".

From a Fort Erie citizen (Note: Cogeco is, like Rogers in Mississauga, the local cable company that tapes Fort Erie council meetings):

"The Cogeco camera had stopped rolling after the break. After pretty much everyone had left, [mayor] brought forward a motion to not permit the taping of council meetings by the public"

"a motion to not permit the taping of council meetings by the public"

Last night I received this press release. I reproduce it here in its entirety. (I can see by the misspelling "chrstopher" that Mr. Humes's email isn't going anywhere. I'll fix that.)

This press release --a call for citizens of Fort Erie and other Ontario municipalities to show up at "Fort Erie council on Monday December 10, 6.00pm (#1 Municipal Center Fort Erie Ontario)" with their cameras to "oppose any restriction of public video taping of council proceedings.

I was scheduled to show up to address Ajax Council on Monday regarding their decision to oust the Ontario Ombudsman in favour of the municipalities-controlled Local Authority Services. I'm dropping that deputation to throw support to the citizens of Fort Erie and I'm hoping there are other readers who understand where their duties and obligations as Canadians rest this Monday night.

What follows is the press release and the related article in the Fort Erie Times.

From: "John Papadakis" john-papadakis@sympatico.ca
To: TOS - Costa (office) ; torsun.editor@sunmedia.ca ; tor_news@sunpub.com ; tom.godfrey@sunmedia.ca ; Alison Bell ; ashackleton@insidetoronto.com ; Bernie Tanz ; cftonews@ctv.ca ; chrstopherHumes Toronto star ; city@thestar.ca ; Craitor_Kim-MPP-CO ; etcnews ; globalnews.tor@globaltv.com ; lorrie.goldstein@sunmedia.ca ; Metro Today ; metromorning@toronto.cbc.ca ; news@cfrb.com ; NatPost CityEd ; news@pulse24.com ; rjames@thestar.ca ; rspiteri@nfreview.com
Sent: Thursday, December 06, 2007 5:15 PM
Subject: Press release

JOHN PAPADAKIS

Media Release

To: City / Assignment Editors

Fort Erie, Ontario December 06 2007 - Former Mayoral Candidate John Papadakis will go before Fort Erie council to oppose any restriction of public video taping of council proceedings and is asking citizen to go to council on Monday with their cameras as a sign of support of our constitutional rights.

The mayor of Fort Erie is asking staff on the opportunity of banning or restriction of the public video taping council proceedings.

Martin claims he is concerned that “an individual is taping council proceedings”

“This is clearly evident that municipalities such as Fort Erie are out of control and the erosion of openness and accountability to the citizen is reaching a crisis level.

I cannot understand why they would even consider such a removal of our rights and freedoms; it looks like this council creates crises to deflect the public from the real issues of governess.” said Papadakis.

If councilors are concerned about slander and defamation they do have legal recourse otherwise they must understand this is public life and programs such as “The Daily Show”,”This Hour Has 22 Minutes and others, use public officials for material – That’s public life.”

I am asking the citizens of this and any community who want to preserve our rights and to keep our municipalities accountable to show up to Fort Erie council on Monday December 10, 6.00pm (#1 Municipal Center Fort Erie Ontario) to let politicians know that the will not get away the removal our rights Papadakis passionately stated.

This will have national repercussions.

This link is to the article by Ray Spiteri of the Niagara Falls review.

http://www.niagarafallsreview.ca/ArticleDisplay.aspx?e=806423&auth=RAY+SPITERI

John Papadakis
Crystal Beach Ontario

For More Information Call 905-894-3180

What follows is the related news article from the Niagara Falls Review. [My own commentary will be in square brackets]

Mayor not ready for his closeup

Fort Erie considers controls on citizens taping meetings

Posted By RAY SPITERI
Posted 1 day ago

To record, or not to record: Mayor Doug Martin is questioning whether citizens should be permitted to record public council meetings.

[TRANSLATION: "We do not want to be held accountable for what we do and say."

Fort Erie has a major problem if it has a mayor who questions whether public meetings should be videotaped by citizens. In my experience, given that local government is only accountable one day every four years when the voting booths are open, I ask you, how else can citizens hold their city halls "accountable"?

Also --sadly-- from my experience, citizens must take care not to leave themselves open (and vulnerable) to the "he said/she said" of their city halls. If it's your word against theirs, you lose every time.]

Martin wants town staff to look into potential regulations and if or how other municipalities deal with recording devices, including video cameras, being used in council chambers.

[TRANSLATION: Fort Erie wants to restrict/control the historical record of its public meetings exclusively to its city clerk's council minutes and through its local cable station. Local Cable Council broadcasts have a contract (like Mississauga has with Rogers) to strictly control use of the raw Council material to live airing via copyright and "Third Party" blah-blah-blah. Think the former Soviet Union and you'll get the idea.]

"I'm not trying to stop democracy or restrict the public's right to know, as some would like to believe," Martin told The Review.

[NOTE: There's not a mayor on the planet who would admit to trying to stop democracy and that includes mayors in Totalitarian regimes! Just like this closed-meeting investigator issue, there is not a single municipality out of Ontario's 445 who will admit that citizens truly need a closed meeting investigator to break through their culture of secrecy. Culture of secrecy? What "culture of secrecy"?]

"We've had an individual videotaping our meetings - which I don't have a problem with - but are we going to allow anybody in the public to do that?

[Which raises the question, should only citizens of Fort Erie videotape Fort Erie public meetings? Should videotaping permission be restricted to citizens of a certain political leaning, those who contributed to the mayor's election campaign let's say? Or the mayor's approved particular race(s), religion(s) or sexual orientation(s)? Perhaps the Fort Erie mayor may wish to charge a fee to citizen-videotapers --charge a rate per $.25 per video minute. That would help keep the less-affluent at bay.]

"Or are there certain regulations and procedures we should or could be looking at in dealing with this?"

[IMPORTANT: PLACE A BOOKMARK HERE. I have a comment on this --a hunch. But I must wait until after checking out Fort Erie Council on Monday to confirm.]

John Gilmour, a Fort Erie resident, has posted clips of town council on YouTube, specifically twice-monthly council-in-committee meetings which are not televised by TV Cogeco.

[I bet if I GOOGLEd, I could find numerous references to openness, transparency, inviting public input blah blah blah at the Town of Fort Erie website and press releases.]

At a council meeting last month, Gilmour captured footage of Coun. Ann-Marie Noyes accusing Coun. Sandy Annunziata of plagiarizing a code of conduct he submitted as part of a report to re-designate and re-establish the Bridgeburg Station and Ridgeway business improvement areas. The debate was posted to YouTube.

[Note: City officials are more than happy to hold people accountable for what they say by banning people --even arresting them. And that includes Youth. That is, citizens are held accountable for what they say and do --and some tragically. And the moment, a citizen aims the accountability-camera at them, they're poised to restrict that to their own advantage.]

"Even the mention of a staff report on this matter - that they might want to consider limiting citizens' rights to tape their public, and I stress public, meetings - is outrageous," Gilmour said.

[Actually, it's EVIL. EVIL.]

"The only conclusion I can draw from this is that there are certain people that don't like what I am doing."

[FROM THE BELIEVE IT OR NOT DEPARTMENT: As readers know, on Monday I attended a Town of Caledon Council meeting to sit in how their closed-meeting investigator item. Get this. One Councillor, Doug Beffort

objected to me photo/videotaping and denied me use of his image! After Council, I approached Mayor Morrison and asked if I could use her and other councillors' video and I was denied. They did approve the audio though. Imagine. Right now the Town of Caledon website has a drop-down on its front door stating "Accountability and Transparency Policies Accountability and Transparency Policies will be considered for adoption by Council at the Council meeting of December 4, 2007 after 1:00 p.m. and they (all save Councillors Annette Groves and Jason Payne) denied use of my video footage.]

"They are afraid of certain things making it to public light that they don't want out there. Sometimes these people forget who they work for."

[YO! Mr. Gilmour! Check out Les Beauts in Caledon!]

Gilmour said he tapes council meetings because he doesn't believe local government is as transparent as it should be.

[I am so SICK of hearing about "transparency" and "accountability". With depressingly few exceptions, you can't HAVE "transparency" and "accountability" in the soulless bleak dimensionless realm of Ontario municipal governance.]

"This is another way of getting the news out. I don't censor anything, and whatever I record is put on YouTube unedited."

[Even for a citizen to YouTube, he still can't match the $Schlock-and-BLAHH$ of glossy municipal literature and "We're Here For You" mega-ads. It's like peeing upwind in a Category 5 Hurricane. ]

Gilmour said the only thing he might add to files are descriptions about each video posted.

[I do that too. It provides context --a heads up to viewers.]

David Siegel, dean of Brock University's faculty of social sciences and professor of political science, said any citizen, regardless of their job description, "has the right to stick a microphone in front of someone's face, just as that someone has the right to walk away from that microphone.

"If a meeting is open to the public, I don't see how you can restrict them from recording that meeting," said Siegel.

[I can. It's called the 2001 Municipal Act --a particularly insiduous and un-Canadian document created during the Mike Harris years with the help of powerful lobbying by AMO. It gave munic... never mind]

"The mayor might want to look into some practical issues, like having the (recorder) stand in a certain place so as not to be disruptive to the rest of the audience. I can see the mayor being concerned if everybody came in with hotlights and equipment, but I highly doubt that would ever happen."

[There should be a restriction placed on FLASH photography. I'd do that too if I were part of a council.]

Coun. Noyes said she doesn't object to the public recording council - in fact, she encourages it.

[This is how Ontarians can identify elected officials who believe in transparency and accountability from the B.S.WALKING. For example, I know all I really need to know about Caledon Council from their behaviour on Monday.]

"I applaud anyone who is that interested in local government that they would take the time to come out and tape our meetings," Noyes said. "The public voted this council into power and we should never forget who we represent."

Councillors Bob Steckley, Richard Shular and Annunziata say they don't have a problem with taping, if it is done fairly and isn't disruptive. Coun. Martha Lockwood couldn't be reached for comment.

[TRANSLATION: Fort Erie citizens! Heads up on Councillor Martha Lockwood.]

"Like it or not, we are always going to be watched until we are no longer in public office," Steckley said. "We just have to accept that there will be people who like and others who don't like what we say or do.

"But we don't have the right, in my opinion, to censor or discourage them in any way."

[While I agree with this, I also believe if a citizen's motivation is to document a city council as a historical record, that citizen has an obligation to present that Information objectively. It is NOT in the interest of the public to counter City Hall B.S. with B.S. of your own.]

Coun. Tim Whitfield said he is "not intimidated" by being videotaped, but he outlined legal actions that can be taken if a councillor feels their reputation has been tarnished by a "manipulated piece of footage."

"Unfortunately, there are some people in this town who enjoy spreading untruthful rhetoric in order to get their bias feelings across," said Whitfield, declining to name the individuals he was referring to."

[Please see a previous Blog about how city halls will toss out the ol' "axe to grind" herring as a way to deflect sunlight AWAY from their own behaviours. You won't believe the degree of harassment.

Citizen-Bloggers and municipal videographers should also be prepared for death threats and wishes that you were dead like this example left as a comment for my YouTube "MISSISSAUGA SIGNZ (Moving FAST Forward)".

Or harassment about whose side you are on like for GAMZ --about video surveillance inside Mississauga Council..]

Whitfield said it would be difficult to enforce a bylaw or regulation prohibiting any member of the public from recording council meetings.

[NOTE: For municipal councils that have restricted me to audio, I will comply. But I'm adding video overlays of paper bags with eye holes and the caption "Councillor X has denied use of his image" for when they're speaking! Imagine how that will play as the historical record for the "Accountability and Transparency" Caledon Council Bill 130 debate!]

"I suppose if we pass a bylaw that only allows accredited media to record, that could be a way."

[Yes, and please feel free to email any despotic regime on the planet to cut-and-paste-plagiarize their policies into your Fort Erie Procedural By-law, Councillor Whitfield!]

Niagara Falls city clerk Dean Iorfida said filming has never been a problem here. He said in some municipalities, permission for recording is required and in all communities, the person filming can't be disruptive.

[re: "Niagara Falls city clerk Dean Iorfida said filming has never been a problem here." TRANSLATION: No one in Niagara Falls has ever filmed council until NOW.]

According to information from the Association of Municipal Clerks and Treasurers, in Markham regular council meetings can be recorded through audio streaming on the town's website. The use of recording equipment in the council chamber by the public or media is permitted, provided it is not disruptive.

["The use of recording equipment in the council chamber by the public or media is permitted," There ya go. For councils that deny their citizens the right for videotape them, prepare an audiotape and add the video afterwards! Example, videotape horses' backsides and then add eyeballs through PhotoShop afterwards. Or a videotape a BIG BLACK BOX with a mouth going up and down.

Better yet, create your own animated gifs. Or use the ones freely available on the Net. Restrictions to audio should not be a problem.]

In the Township of Nairn and Hyman, near Sudbury, meetings can be recorded when requested in writing with the use of the municipality's own equipment.

In Peel, the public can use recording equipment at public meetings if it is not disruptive.

[Regarding "Peel", the Niagara Review article is likely referring to Mississauga Watch's videotaping presence. Correct. So far, Peel Region does allow videotaping as does Mississauga and I presume Brampton. I say "presume" because the security guard at Wednesday's council meeting didn't approach me to suggest otherwise.

However, the Town of Caledon DENIES the public the right videotape their proceedings. That Caledon Council denied a video historical record of their Bill 130 transparency and accountability debate demonstrates like nothing else can that the legiitimacy of "closed meetings" are the LEAST of citizens' concerns in Caledon.

Hey if I can endure, harassment, intimidation and wishes I drop dead for the Public's Right to Know, readers can help bring some CANADA into Ontario's city halls.

Signed,
The (Hope fellow-citizens --and perhaps even councillors of other municipalities-- will show up in Fort Erie on Monday to fight for the "Public's Right to Know") Mississauga Muse
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