With the resumption of the regular Town Council meetings on Monday, September 12th after a summer break, the Mayor and Council had to look across the aisle of the Council Chambers to a gallery of about 20 disgruntled citizens, unhappy about the Mayor and Council’s stonewalling over placing a framed copy of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms in the Council Chambers.

Photos by Barry Blick.

Since the presentation of a framed copy of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms to the Mayor on April 27th as a gift to the Town to be placed in the Council Chambers, two follow-up emails, one on May 17th and another on June 15th, enquiring about the status of the framed Charter, have been met with silence from the Mayor and Council, appalling disrespectful, behaviour on their part.

In early July another approach to getting an answer from the Mayor and Council failed. On July 4, 2022, Deborah Murphy contacted Jaylene Knight, Manager, Legislative Services, asking to come before the Mayor and Council at their last meeting on July 11, 2022 before the summer break. Deborah indicated that it would only be for about one minute so as to ask the Mayor and Council a question. When asked as to what the question would be, Deborah replied she would first ask if they were ashamed of the Charter and if they answered no, she would follow up with, ‘then why have you not hung the Charter?’ Ms. Knight said that she would get back to Deborah about her request to appear before Council. Four days later Ms. Knight got back to Deborah. She began by apologizing for taking so long as she had to look into the policies and bylaws, then indicating that according to the policies and bylaws, Deborah would not be permitted to appear before Council, thereby blocking another avenue of getting a response from the Mayor and Council.

Prior to the start of the Council Meeting at 5:30 pm, Deborah Murphy served the Mayor and Council with a notice of liability Mayor and Council NOL, which included extensive information about the impact of the Covid restrictions and experimental gene therapy injections, so that they cannot plead ignorance. Watch video of prsentation here: Presentation of NOL to Mayor and Council

As well, Tex Leugner, a veteran who is a member of Veterans4Freedom, approached the Mayor to remind him and the Council that Canada’s military in Europe and elsewhere had made the sacrifice, many with their lives, for the freedoms we enjoy or should enjoy today as articulated by our Charter of Rights and Freedoms. Watch video here: Tex Leugner’s Message to Council  He concluded by pointing out the “shame” they have drawn upon themselves over their apparent unwillingness to stand up for such freedoms.

At the Inaugural Council meeting on October 25, 2021 after last fall’s municipal election, the Mayor and Council took the following oath of office: ‘I ……… swear that I will diligently, faithfully and to the best of my ability, execute according to the law the office of councillor (or mayor)’. According to the law? Surely, our elected representatives would be expected to execute their duties according to the supreme law of the land, the Charter of Rights and Freedoms. 

A big thank you to those who responded to the Call to Action and took the time to attend the Council Meeting to send a strong message to our Mayor and Council that our fundamental freedoms should not be trivialized.