City’s integrity commissioner deems no sanctions for councillor after calling out police chief
Posted Nov 14, 2016 9:56 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
Calgary’s integrity commissioner has ruled ward 13 Calgary councillor Diane Colley-Urquhart won’t be facing any sanctions after looking into comments she had made about the police chief.
His review was spurred by a request from Ward 3 Councillor Jim Stevenson following a use of force incident that had surfaced over YouTube during the summer.
According to a letter, released by Colley-Urquhart’s office, he was concerned her comments in an ongoing investigation undermined public confidence in the Calgary Police.
The Honourable Allen Sulatycky ruled as a matter of prudence, both law enforcement officials and elected officials avoid making public statements until all the facts are known about a case.
But he also ruled any attempt to restrain an elected official from stating their opinoin would violate the right to freedom of opinion and expression guaranteed in Canada.
Statements of fact, unlike expressions of opinion, may result in sanctions and the Ethical Code of Conduct for Members of Council and the Policies it incorporates requires members to be “fair in their dealings with others.”
Sulatycky says in his view, Colley-Urquhart made only one statement where she did not cite sufficient evidence for it to fail the fairness requirement.
“The Chief didn’t respond because he didn’t want to respond and because he felt that way he didn’t direct his second in command ot do it.”
He ruled that was okay because she prefaced the quoted statement with the words “it’s obvious to me”, making it a statement of her opinion and not fact.
Mayor Naheed Nenshi reserved the right in front of reporters to comment at a later date because he hadn’t had time to read the report.
The request to have the integrity commissioner look into the incident was brought forward by Ward 3 Councillor Jim Stevenson in a letter that was also signed by Ray Jones, Shane Keating and Andre Chabot.
“I don’t think it was prudent for her to do that but apparently it’s a freedom of speech type thing,” he said.
Stevenson says the process is new and they’re still learning how it will work moving forward.
“I’m sure that she considers it a vindication,” he said. “I would consider it a slap on the wrist but I’m sure she doesn’t.”
