More than 10 days after a council meeting was adjourned before all the evening’s business had been conducted, the video from the meeting has yet to be posted on the City of New Westminster’s website.
Council meetings can be attended in-person at city hall or watched online. Videos of the meetings are posted on the city’s website the morning after meetings take place.
The video of the Feb. 5 evening meeting, which was adjourned before all of the meeting’s business had been completed, has yet to be posted online.
In a Friday, Feb. 9 email to the Record, Peter DeJong, the city’s corporate officer, said the city would be releasing an “edited version” of the video the following week.
As of 9:30 a.m. on Friday, Feb. 16, the video of the meeting had yet to be posted.
The Record contacted the city on Feb. 14 for additional details about the city’s plans to post the video from the Feb. 5 meeting, including when it would be available online, why and how is it being edited, and who was being consulted about the version of the video that will be posted online? (i.e. mayor and council, city solicitor, and chief administrative officer.)
After dealing with most of the items on the Feb. 5 agenda, including the consent agenda, bylaws and discussions about council motions related to a trip to Port Coquitlam and funding for residents’ associations, council had a quick break before reconvening at 7 p.m. to hear from delegates.
The second of 10 delegates who had signed up to speak at the Feb. 5 council meeting was stopped from speaking a number of times, when “points of order” were called regarding some of the comments he was making in council chamber.
Saeed Naguib told council he was concerned about comments that had been made by at the Jan. 8 meeting.He said what’s happening in Gaza is a life-or-death issue for people in his community, and “words have consequences” and can lead to hate crimes.
(At the Jan. 8 meeting, council voted 4-0 in support of a motion to call for a cease fire in Gaza, to support restricted access to humanitarian aid, to secure the release of all hostages and to call on the Canadian government stop all arms shipments, sales and training to Israel in compliance with Canadian law.)
When “points of order” were called by Coun. Daniel Fontaine at the Feb. 5 meeting, Mayor Patrick Johnstone asked the delegate to focus his comments on issues, not individuals. Eventually, Coun. Ruby Campbell requested that Naguib submit his presentation in writing to council and that council move on to hear from the next delegate.
Naguib, however, refused to leave the area where delegates sit, at which point Johnstone said council would leave the chamber and return when it was able to hear from the next delegate.
After leaving council chamber at just after 7:30 p.m., council returned around 8:30 p.m. Naguib had remained sitting at the delegates’ table throughout council’s absence.
Upon council’s return, Johnstone asked: “Are you willing to allow the meeting to proceed and allow other delegates to come up and provide delegation at this time?”
No, Naguib replied.
“We are not in a practice in this city of having people forcibly removed from chambers, and I don’t think it’s a practice we should begin today,” Johnstone said. “The only option I think is available to council right now is that we just adjourn the meeting.”
More to come.
