On Tuesday, April 30, 2024, the Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Advisory Committee (DEIAC) met to discuss the Committee’s Terms of Reference and a correspondence item from a delegate who participated in the DEIAC meeting of April 16, 2024.
Like all of our Advisory committees, the DEIAC meetings are held virtually, which permits members more and better access to participate, regardless where they reside in Niagara and taking into account what their day may look like with respect to family and work commitments.
Like all of our virtual committee meetings that are made up primarily of members of the public, the Region neither broadcasts nor records the meetings, and the meeting link is not made widely available to the public. If a member of the public would like to view the meeting, they can do so by reaching out to the Regional Clerk for the link to the meeting. This is a relatively well-known and understood practice for our meetings, particularly by those who have viewed committee meetings in this manner previously.
Unfortunately, a few hours ahead of the meeting, a member of the public who had requested the link to the meeting from the Regional Clerk took it upon themself to share the link to several social media accounts and encouraged people to join the call without requesting the link from the Clerk’s office.
We began the meeting by advising observers of the expectations and letting them know that if there were any disruptions, those who were disruptive would be excused from the meeting. Following the opening remarks from staff about the first agenda item, I reminded observers of the expectations, as several more people had joined the meeting while staff were introducing an item, and I wanted to ensure that everyone had the same information about expectations.
As we moved into discussion about the first agenda item, and the Clerk shared a motion on her screen, several participants on the call engaged in what was clearly a coordinated disruption of the meeting and assaulted Committee members, staff, and members of the public with loud music and very graphic images and video of pornography.
Staff moved as quickly as they could to remove all of the offenders from the call, and I sternly advised everyone in attendance that if that kind of disruption occurred again, we would not excuse offenders from the meeting, we would end the meeting entirely. Unfortunately, due to the way our screen was being viewed at the time, staff and I missed that there was one more graphic image on the gallery view, but removed it as soon as Councillor Huson advised us she was seeing the image. As it was part of the same disruption, I reminded everyone in attendance that we would end the meeting if there was another disruption.
The meeting continued, and at the end of the meeting I thanked everyone for attending and participating in a meaningful way, even if it was to quietly observe the meeting, and apologized that a member of the public had shared the link widely, which led to the alarming and disruptive behaviour.
I cannot condemn strongly enough this behaviour. It is highly unlikely that this would have happened had the meeting link not been shared publicly (given that it’s never happened before), so I, personally, attribute this disgusting and harmful behaviour to the fact that the link was shared publicly.
The public sharing of the link led to some members of the public engaging in our meeting in a way that most certainly caused harm to participants of the meeting. We have at least two DEIAC members who were extremely upset by the disruption, never mind how staff or I felt about being assaulted by video and images we did not consent to viewing.
Immediately following the meeting, I reached out to DEIAC members to apologize on behalf of the member of the public for creating the circumstances for that kind of disruption, to offer support if they needed it, and to assure them that something like that would never happen again.
At the very same time, staff, Councillor Huson, and I discussed what technology requirements could be put in place for all meetings that are conducted the way we conduct DEIAC meetings to ensure that something like this can never happen again.
If you are reading this as a DEIAC member, Regional staff, or member of the public who did not engage in this behaviour, I am, again, very sorry that you were subjected to this disruption. We will take all steps to ensure it never happens again.
I appreciate that the Regional Chair has also reached out to the DEIAC and all of Council to condemn this behaviour and offer support to DEAIC members if they feel they need it.
Laura Ip - Regional Councillor 