With the silly season of the 2018 civic elections getting closer and closer, it’s time for a little message about decorum.
Passions run high when it comes to local politics, and that tension was on display last Tuesday night in Burnaby city council chambers.
A group of protesters showed up at city hall to express their displeasure over the spate of demovictions that have hit the city during the past few years.
That tension spilled over as a member of the audience got into a loud discussion with Mayor Derek Corrigan. It got so bad that Corrigan asked security to have the man escorted out for disrupting the meeting. The man eventually promised to quieten down, so Corrigan allowed him to stay.
First, Corrigan was correct in wanting the man tossed. This is a municipal council meeting, not some apartment strata AGM. There is city business to be done, and shouting while the meeting is taking place is unfair to all the other people who came to have their issues addressed.
These sorts of outbursts happen all the time at municipal council and school board meetings.
Look, we get it.
You’re upset about your issue and want to be heard. But show a little decorum. Shouting at politicians during a meeting doesn’t serve your cause. It’s immature behaviour that solves nothing. It makes you look foolish and makes people stop listening to what is probably a very worthy cause.
If you want to stage a protest outside of city hall and yell slogans and sing songs, then go for it. That’s the place to do it. But disrupting a city meeting where issues are being decided is not the place to do it.
Let’s all stay calm and fight for our issues in a civilized way.
