An ABC Vancouver councillor who decided before he was elected last fall to block a citizen on his Twitter account — and has continued to do so as a politician — was the subject of a complaint before the city’s integrity commissioner that has a connection to former U.S. president Donald Trump.
The politician nor the complainant are named in a ruling posted this month to the commissioner’s section of the city’s website, but male pronouns are used to describe the councillor.
Green Party Coun. Pete Fry is the only male at city hall not affiliated with ABC Vancouver. He said in an email to Glacier Media that he is not the person referred to in commissioner Lisa Southern’s report.
Glacier Media sent emails to the four male ABC Vancouver councillors Thursday, but had not heard back from Mike Klassen, Brian Montague, Peter Meiszner or Lenny Zhou before this story was posted Friday.
All four are newcomers to council and have Twitter accounts.
At issue for Southern was whether the councillor breached the city’s code of conduct when he blocked the citizen before the Oct. 15, 2022 election and continued to block that person when elected.
The short answer is there was no breach.
Donald Trump
The longer answer from Southern involved her analyzing the citizen’s complaint, which relied on a decision from the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, which ruled that Trump — who was president at the time — was not allowed to block citizens on Twitter.
The Washington Post reported in March 2020 that the court denied the Trump administration’s request to revisit an earlier holding that Trump violated the First Amendment when he blocked individual Twitter users who were critical of the president or his polices.
“Excluding people from an otherwise public forum such as this by blocking those who express views critical of a public official is, we concluded, unconstitutional,” wrote Judge Barrington D. Parker.
Southern was brief in her ruling regarding the U.S. court’s decision: “The Trump decision is not precedential in Canada.”
The commissioner also considered the complainant’s reference to the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, specifically Section 2 (b), which states everyone has the following fundamental freedoms: freedom of thought, belief, opinion and expression, including freedom of the press and other media of communication.
'Clowns'
Southern’s response to the charter question came after reviewing a case out of Peterborough, Ont. where a citizen named Calvin Chan complained in 2021 that the city’s then-mayor Diane Therrien breached that city’s code of conduct.
The allegation of a breach was based on a series of tweets Therrien made about Maxime Bernier, the leader of the People’s Party of Canada, and Randy Hillier, who was then an independent member of Ontario’s provincial parliament.
In one tweet, Therrien referred to the two men as “clowns” and that they need not come to Peterborough for an anti-lockdown rally. In another tweet, she wrote, “Hey @randyhillier, @MaximeBernier, I know you guys are bored, but stay TF home.”
Peterborough’s integrity commissioner, Guy Giorno, found Therrien did not contravene the code of conduct, concluding the mayor’s tweets were “personal and not governmental.”
Giorno further stated that “actions of a government official are subject to the charter only when the official acts on behalf of the government, and not in a personal capacity…nothing indicates the mayor was tweeting on behalf of the City of Peterborough.”
'Open and transparent'
In the case before Southern, no details were disclosed on why the ABC Vancouver councillor chose to block the citizen, or why the citizen believes they were blocked. The relationship between the councillor and citizen was also not shared.
Southern concluded that she found no basis in the code of conduct that would require the councillor to unblock the citizen — and did not find his activities on Twitter “were sufficiently tied to the administration of his duties such that by blocking the citizen, or others, on Twitter, he failed in his obligation to be open and transparent.”
She further stated: “The councillor conducts his official duties in city council meetings, which are open and transparent. The citizen can also contact the councillor via traditional means of communication with elected officials (including by email and mail).
“If the citizen continued to wish to participate in dialogue with the councillor on his personal Twitter account, it was open to them to seek permission for access, which would be within the councillor’s discretion and may be subject to any social media policy he has in place for his account.”
In May, Glacier Media reported that OneCity Coun. Christine Boyle and ABC Coun. Brian Montague had complaints against them under the city’s code of conduct but were instructed by Southern not to discuss details until their cases are resolved.
In July 2022, Southern ruled against then-mayor Kennedy Stewart for comments he made via Twitter about a motion drafted by then-councillor Colleen Hardwick concerning her request for a plebiscite to gauge whether citizens wanted another Olympics.
