In a perfect world, Ward 11 Calgary city councillor Kourtney Penner said the city wouldn’t need to have the security protocol that it does to get into a typical committee or council meeting.
Calgary city councillors will get a closed-session security briefing during Tuesday’s Regular Meeting of Council, in the wake of last week’s shooting and fire-bombing at Edmonton City Hall. One person was arrested and charged in the Edmonton incident.
The councillors asked by LWC all said they felt safe at Calgary city hall. Aside from the odd agitated citizens sharing their frustrations at a public hearing, there have been few security incidents inside the municipal building that have put councillors or the public at significant risk.
Coun. Penner said that she feels safe at Calgary city hall and anticipates the Tuesday briefing will be to review safety procedures and practices should something similar to Edmonton happen here in Calgary.
There is typically a heavy security presence in the building, particularly on city council or committee days. There is a fortified entrance, complete with bag checks, a walk-through metal detector and detection wands used by security personnel. That’s been in place since 2015.
“Yes, we put measures in place for protection. That’s a good thing,” Penner said.
“But I think the real issue is not have we done enough. It’s why do we have to do so much?”
Penner said that a place where the public is coming to contribute shouldn’t be a place where safety is an issue.
“That doesn’t actually even signal ‘Hey, welcome to democracy. Welcome to having your voice heard,” she said.
“That’s like an immediate signal that we don’t trust you. At a time when trust is at its absolute lowest, we’re having to send signals to people that we don’t trust them, but because people are taking it to the extreme.”
In August 2022, someone entered the municipal building around 4 a.m. and set fires that did between $1.3 million and $2.2 million in damages. It closed part of city hall and services had to be relocated. No members of the public or council were at risk in that incident.
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Polarization, the media
The Edmonton city hall attack has spurred conversation about the quality of public discourse and the increasing polarization of municipal issues.
In a 2022 survey of local governments done by Polco (in the United States), almost 70 per cent of government officials said political division negatively impacts their organization. They also go on further to document where the polarization is most likely to impact: Council interactions, resident engagement, resident animosity or hostility, and resident trust of the local government.
While the survey is from the United States, there are elements of this here, too. In particular, trust at city hall. Over the past six years, trust in the City of Calgary has dropped by 16 per cent, according to the most recent fall citizen satisfaction survey.
In that same timeframe, citizen sentiment over opportunities to have input on city decisions also dropped 16 per cent. Having meaningful input into city decisions dropped 21 per cent over eight years (from 2015).
Ward 2 Coun. Jennifer Wyness said she also feels safe at city hall, and in the communities in her ward. Her concern is how issues are portrayed in the media and how it foments division and creates safety issues.
“Where, when media reports stories and they don’t get it right, and they put their spin on it and get clickbait out there, that leads to security threats for elected officials,” she said.
“Not agreeing 100 per cent with everyone is how society is supposed to function. We are not a dictatorship where everyone is expected to fall in line. We are supposed to challenge in a healthy way.”
Where that gets tripped up, she said, whether that’s municipally, provincially or federally, is the acceptance of each other’s differences.
“That is totally absent in where we are today,” she said.
“I find until everyone owns their role in it, we’re not going anywhere. I look at how media has chosen to cover stories in the last few years and there’s a fault in that too.”
Calling it out
Coun. Andre Chabot, who has been a part of councils with and without enhanced security features, said that he feels safe at Calgary city hall. Plus, he said he’s been in front of “some pretty angry mobs” before and never felt threatened.
“A lot of people are vocal, but not necessarily physical,” he said.
Chabot agreed with Penner, that city council chambers probably don’t need the extent of security measures they have. It does provide peace of mind, he said. It would be challenging enough to get through the metal detectors, let alone climb a six-foot pony wall with heavy glass on the top half, Chabot said.
When it comes to the quality of conversation at Calgary city hall, or on municipal issues, Chabot said that it needs to be called out when it happens. He likened it to a hockey game where the referees are letting too much go.
“If a ref allows people to do tripping and hooking and cross-checking and doesn’t call penalties, players feel empowered, and you’ll see more and more of that activity happening. Not just from one team, but for both teams because one team gets impacted by it and they feel like they have to provide retribution,” he said.
“Well, there’s a lot of that sort of rhetoric that’s been happening through public discourse, where some folks will say things that are not only derogatory, but they’re almost defamatory in nature, they are personally offensive to individuals, and then those individuals feel like they have a need to rebut those statements, and typically, with the same vigor and anger as the original comments that were made.”
Coun. Chabot said too many people stand idly by and allow that to happen. It’s even happening in council chambers – by community members and councillors alike.
“It’s not acceptable from either side; debate the issue, not the individuals and their position on the issue,” he said.
“Everyone has a right to their opinion. You shouldn’t call them out because their opinion differs from yours. Call out the issue. Don’t call out the individuals.”
When asked about the number of security or safety incidents linked to city hall or the municipal building, City of Calgary corporate security said they didn’t track specific incidents or activity specific to civic officials or their locations. They directed LWC to crime data that tracks social disorder within a nine-block radius of city hall.
CTV Calgary’s Jordan Kanygin produced a story in early January that examined an increase in the City of Calgary’s corporate security budget, and looked at threats faced by Calgary city councillors.
