The City of Nanaimo and council could be facing a legal challenge over banning members of the public from recording at council meetings.
The Justice Centre for Constitutional Freedoms issued a warning via a letter from Charter Rights Canada, an organization stating its purpose is “to uphold the constitutional freedoms, civil right and human rights of Canadians,” that was sent to the city Thursday, July 3.
The organization is taking issue with Nanaimo city council’s amendments to its council procedure bylaw and respectful spaces bylaw adopted April 7 “to the extent that they now prohibit the public from using electronic devices to take photographs or to video record at council meetings or at municipal facilities, the latter of which unconscionably extends even to public parks and trails.”
The letter is signed by Andre Memauri, a constitutional lawyer with the Justice Centre for Constitutional Freedoms, which provided lawyers for the legal challenge. The press release went on to say the prohibitions by council are an “egregious violation of the freedom of expression of citizens guaranteed by … the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms," and if council disregards the concerns stated in the letter and fails to “reverse these unconstitutional prohibitions within a reasonable period of time, legal proceedings may follow.”
In the release, Memauri said recording public city council meetings “clearly supports democratic discourse and truth seeking – core purposes protected by [the charter] and that “there is no reasonable justification to enact a blanket ban on the recording of public meetings.”
He stated he also found the scope of the respectful spaces bylaw “particularly troubling” regarding the prohibition of recording or photography in any area municipal services are provided without guidelines about what spaces are off-limits or how to go about obtaining permission to record.
Memauri said in an e-mail that what he considers a reasonable period of time is long enough for city council to consult with legal counsel and come up with a response.
"Also, it is important to give city council an opportunity to incorporate this matter into their agenda for their next meeting and to also have an opportunity to potentially reverse course on the impugned bylaws," he said.
Nanaimo Mayor Leonard Krog said he’d read the letter and it had been passed on to the city’s solicitors for comment.
“I must say the letter contains a number of inaccuracies with respect to the bylaws and, clearly, they have relied on what I will call potentially second-hand information,” he said. “The city did not enter into the bylaw without very careful consideration of the applicable laws and taking into account the rights of privacy and the need for decorum in council, and also the consideration of people’s right to privacy in public spaces.”
Krog said main reasons for amending the bylaws were the “misuse and abuse” of images and commentary by people who “chose to be disruptive in council meetings” and the city is satisfied the bylaws are in compliance with the law, protect the privacy of citizens and city workers and maintain decorum.
“The suggestions that somehow people’s freedom is being restricted in the council chamber, which is already recorded publicly and is open to anybody to sit in and attend and watch and the press is entitled to report on, I think is really trying to create a tempest in what is a teapot,” Krog said. “If anyone really feels their freedoms have been challenged by this then, by all means, take the matter before the courts.”
