Work stoppages and resignations of elected officials have followed one another in city halls in recent months. From Wickham to Trois-Rivières, the dust is starting to settle, but not everyone agrees on what should be considered intimidation.
Despite the intense heat of summer 2022, Danica, mayor of a small municipality, decided not to put the air conditioning in her room for several weeks. Someone had threatened to kill her and she was afraid that he would break into her house without her knowledge.
Her testimony appears in a recent study by public communications professor Mireille Lalancette, of the University of Quebec at Trois-Rivières, on harassment against elected officials. The study was commissioned by the Ministry of Municipal Affairs following a series of denunciations of harassment targeting elected officials.
In April, Minister Andrée Laforest launched an advertisement entitled “Let’s treat our municipal elected officials like people”. We see the children of certain elected officials reading messages of praise written for their parents. “These comments were made up. Because the real ones didn’t show themselves to children,” the video concluded.
The government has also created an insurance fund to allow elected officials to defend themselves in court. But, according to the president of the Quebec Federation of Municipalities (FQM), Jacques Demers, the problem is not at all resolved. “We’re just getting started,” he says. Since the pandemic, he says, people value their individual rights more than ever and that sometimes supersedes everything else.
Wickham: two readings of the same situation
In terms of intimidation, the example of the Town of Wickham, in Center-du-Québec, particularly stood out. In the spring, the mayor, Ian Lacharité, resigned, denouncing the threats to which his family was subject. The municipality’s decision to merge the fire department with that of Drummondville had triggered the anger of many people towards it.
A few weeks later, it was the turn of Mr. Lacharité’s replacement to resign, citing similar reasons.
The new mayor, Luce Daneau, has a very different reading of what happened. Speaking of “propaganda”, she claims that the Town of Wickham has been wrongly associated with a wave of intimidation. “Elected officials or citizens may have the feeling of being intimidated, but in reality, is it intimidation? This is psychological. »
Elected in June, this former candidate of the Conservative Party of Quebec was part of the movement of citizens opposed to the reform of the fire department who demanded accountability from the City at the time when Mr. Lacharité was in office. “I saw emotional people, it really touched people’s emotions,” she remembers. These are normal reactions that are not aggression. »
Luce Daneau got elected by promising to bring local firefighters back to her territory. She criticizes her predecessors for having presented the population with a “virtually fait accompli” in the fire department file. “One of the big lessons,” she says, “is that we have to promote communication. » “With a mediator, lawyers, we would not have gotten to where we got. »
Trois-Rivières: intimidation in all directions
Wickham, North Hatley, Pierreville: stories of intimidation often come from small municipalities, where tensions are said to be higher. Because everyone knows each other, conflicts become more personal…
Perhaps, but large cities are not spared from the phenomenon.
Like in Trois-Rivières. However, in this case, the intimidation did not come from citizens, but mainly between elected officials. In August 2022, city councilor Pascale Albernhe-Lahaie summoned the media to tell them that she had witnessed “violent, misogynistic and even racist remarks at city hall.” Attacks and complaints from elected officials in Trois-Rivières have since multiplied at the Quebec Municipal Commission (CMQ).
In the midst of the crisis, the mayor, Jean Lamarche, stepped down in January due to the “unhealthy climate” that prevailed on the council, in the words of his office.
Back since July, he says that “things are going better”. “We still have differences of opinion, but fewer personal attacks. » Same thing for citizens who speak on the microphone during assemblies, he said.
How can we explain such progress? “Did the fact that I withdrew give some people pause? Maybe. There is also the filing of complaints with the Quebec Municipal Commission. I also know that there are people from Trois-Rivières who have spoken to their elected officials to tell them that they are tired of hearing negative things about Trois-Rivières and its council while the rest is doing quite well. »
Calling someone “incompetent” is bullying?
However, during this time, defenders of freedoms accuse Trois-Rivières of muzzling all opposition. Last summer, Joan Hamel, a citizen campaigning for the preservation of a wetland, received a visit from a city bailiff following a comment she made on Facebook concerning a senior official. She called him “incompetent”.
The bailiff had given her a warning from the City’s legal services because she had violated the Policy on the Prevention of Violence in Interactions with City of Trois-Rivières Staff.
Lawyer Julius Gray offered him his services. For him, it is an attack on freedom of expression. “In political matters, I think we have the right to be vehement in our criticism,” he said. We have the right to say that a controller or a general manager is incompetent. We forget that democracy is for everyone, not just for the most subtle people who master polite expressions to score their points. »
Questioned on this subject, Mayor Jean Lamarche explains that the employee targeted by Mme Hamel complained to the City and that “every organization must have tools to protect its employees.” He adds that there is a “gradation” to interventions of this kind and that Mme Hamel “simply” received “a letter warning her that she had no right to do that.”
Me Julius Gray believes that this type of fight against bullying risks leading to excesses. In this context, could elected officials victimize themselves to hide errors, or even incompetence?
No, answers Professor Mireille Lalancette. “The elected people I met did not want to gag anyone. They just wanted healthy debate and respect,” she says. They were “ready to receive a lot of criticism and other insults in order to advance issues and democracy”.
She also draws a parallel with rape culture. “We blame the victim, we make the victims responsible,” she laments. Any violence is unacceptable. »
Lack of support
But beyond the conflicts and their causes, these stories also highlight the lack of resources available to elected officials, many say. “The legal status of the elected official is complex. He is an office holder, not an employee of the City, so he is not entitled to employee assistance programs (PAE), for example,” notes Mme Lalancette.
Moreover, in Sherbrooke and Chapais, the mayors, who recently left their positions, did not cite intimidation.
In Minister Laforest’s office, it is indicated that the work is not finished on this file. With the FQM and the Union of Municipalities of Quebec (UMQ), teams are looking for “ways to provide the required assistance to those who need it, particularly in the area of psychological support.”
Other work is also underway “to continue to better protect elected officials and municipal employees from intimidating or harassing citizens,” indicates the firm. “We want to continue to do more. »