REGINA - All the talk surrounding Wednesday night’s council meeting in Regina had to do with the police having to be called in to clear the gallery.
The incident transpired during the discussion over the Integrity Commissioner’s report into the actions of Councillor Andrew Stevens and Dan LeBlanc, who had taken City Manager Niki Anderson to court for not including homeless funding in the 2023 budget. In the middle of that discussion, a number of people in the gallery started verbally disrupted the proceedings by speaking in support of both LeBlanc and Stevens.
Mayor Sandra Masters responded by asking the commissionaire to clear the room, but a number of those in the gallery refused to leave. At that point, Regina Police Service was called in. After several minutes, the room was cleared with no arrests being made.
The doors to the council chamber were then locked, which drew a challenge from Councillor Shanon Zachidniak to the mayor’s ruling. In the end council voted to side with the mayor’s decision to clear the chamber, and went on to pass a resolution accepting the Integrity Commissioner’s report and expressing disappointment in the actions of Stevens and LeBlanc.
As a backdrop to the meeting, a homeless encampment had set up on the lawn in front of City Hall. They had moved there the previous Thursday after being forced out from the Pepsi Park location, and were still there on Wednesday.
In speaking to reporters, Councillor LeBlanc noted the issues those in the gallery had come to council about was less about the ethics issue, and more about the larger issue of homelessness in the city. On that note, he felt they were right to be there.
“What we saw is many of the people there said rightly this whole thing isn’t about Councillors LeBlanc and Stevens. It’s about the issue of houselessness,” said LeBlanc.
“I think they’re right to come in and say ‘you the people running the city of Regina need to be responsive.’ So I think they’re right to come in, they’re right to raise concerns.”
Regarding those who did disrupt the proceedings, LeBlanc felt “a warning would have been appropriate.”
But he also expressed concern that everyone was being kicked out, including those who haven’t been part of the disruption.
LeBlanc told reporters he believed the audience in the gallery were being kicked out “simply on the assumption they also support action on houselessness or as a proxy to the court application related to it.”
He called it a “very dangerous precedent to kick out everybody affiliated or presumptively affiliated with a cause the Chair doesn’t like, then lock the door for everyone irrespective of political beliefs. I think that’s a slippery slope.”
Mayor Sandra Masters defended the decision to clear the room in speaking to reporters.
“There are rules about participating in the gallery. All of our delegations had been heard by supper time, the break. Some folks came in, individuals were yelling and calling out comments and interrupting, they were warned a couple of times. An individual was removed, and there was another outburst, and so we cleared the gallery. The commissioners attempted to clear the gallery under request of those individuals, they refused and so the commissioners contacted the RPS. My understanding from all folks involved, all councillors involved is that the feedback is that they were incredibly professional, very polite, just looking to defuse the situation, and we got back in hand with the balance of a very significant agenda.”
When asked how uncomfortable the experience was in having to ask people to leave, Masters responded it was “deeply uncomfortable.”
She added the “idea that decorum or order wouldn’t be followed when you’re just attempting to undertake the business of the city of Regina on an agenda, it’s a little disturbing.”
Regina Police Chief Evan Bray was asked by reporters Thursday about the situation inside council chambers on Wednesday. He noted it was quite a different situation for police compared to the homeless encampment that had set up outside City Hall.
“When it comes to homeless encampments, our goal is not to arrest,” said Bray. “Protests are different. So last night a group of people at the gallery at City Hall that were saying they weren’t leaving and they were being asked to leave. So at the end of the day our officers showed up. No arrests had to be made. They left on their own, but had we needed to, we would’ve arrested protesters.”
Bray further made his point that their goal was not to make arrests. Instead, their goal is to work with community partners, the city, provincial partners and social services to help people transition into housing or supportive housing.
“Our goal and our focus will not be to arrest homeless people. I can’t promise we won’t arrest the protesters.”
