Democracy In Doubt At City Hall: QUOTABLE

“… under (Mayor Mark Sutcliffe’s) watch, city democracy has gone backwards. He has remained silent on the police board censorship, defended the excessive city hall security measures, and staunchly backed the bubble bylaw, despite pleas for caution from staff who want legal challenges on similar bylaws in other cities to be settled first. What’s happening is a big shame.”

Ottawa Citizen columnist Mohammed Adam

What Adam has done here is taken a number of events, that the rest of the media has treated as one-offs, and shown a disturbing trend. Ottawa City Hall has become increasingly anti-democratic.

It goes even further than Adam shows in this fine column. Public consultations are treated as mandatory requirements (sometimes) where the public is routinely ignored. Staff wants what it wants with policy and it will not be put off course by the people they are supposed to represent well and who pay the bills. It is a gross abrogation of democratic principles. And memo to staff, democracy really does matter everywhere (but particularly Canada’s capital) with it diminishing around the world.

The word “sometimes” above is chosen carefully and needs more explanation. Where were the public consultations on increased city hall security? Or sprung structures before it became a raging controversy (and when the audience at a meeting asked to participate in the sprung structure presentation, they were told “absolutely not” by no less than an elected official. So much for free speech). Perhaps free speech as long as it isn’t public. You know, just somewhat free speech over the dinner table as was popular among the non-gulag population of the former Soviet Union.

The point of protesting is to make the comfortable uncomfortable. At Ottawa City Hall, they believe the point of protesting is to make the comfortable comfortable. And thus our decision-makers (it certainly isn’t the people) are insulated from  the embarrassing and noisy unwashed.

At city hall, governance is by our betters. As in people who know better than the huddled masses. You know, like the Family Compact in pre-Confederation British North America.

How long will it be before a city staffer or pol says something along the lines of: “We’ve studied this and we know best and this is what we will do … and we don’t care what you think.”

Maybe city hall hasn’t noticed this (it so isolated in the scanner-protected ivory tower) but there is a civic reform movement beginning mostly from the left that is unlikely to favour less democracy.

The business interests, so well represented at city hall, aren’t going to like this. Best to placate the reformers before they take over your job.

A bit of democracy perhaps for the seething masses? Or let them eat beavertails?

Ken Gray

For You:

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City Probes Sprung Structure Site: LO

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