During Tuesday’s debate on the single-use items bylaw repeal, one Calgary city councillor used language that for many is left for behind closed doors in a private conversation or perhaps a locker room.
Warning. Potentially offensive language ahead.
In his debate on the single-use items bylaw repeal, Ward 4 Coun. Sean Chu said that the city should get back to focusing on the boring and “non-feel good” core functions of a city – fixing potholes, removing snow and… the synchronization of traffic lights.
He then followed it up with this.
“Please don’t just blindly follow the self-mutilating, woke virtue-signal ideology over common sense, and stop chasing this green Utopian wet dream with no consideration for Calgarians,” he said.
At that point, Mayor Jyoti Gondek stopped him.
“I’m not going to say it again, but you used a sexualized term that does not belong in this chamber,” she said to Coun. Chu.
“What did I use?” Chu responded.
The mayor replied: “If you don’t know what it is, that’s a giant problem, my friend.”
She followed up with: “Will you apologize for using a phrase that does not belong in this chamber?
Chu responded: “To me, it’s not, but if you feel offended, I’m sorry.”
A wet dream, or nocturnal emission, is when a male involuntarily ejaculates during his sleep.
Outside Calgary city council chambers, Mayor Gondek responded to questions on the bylaw repeal and brought up the situation with Chu.
“The other thing that I would say is we had an incredibly unfortunate situation while we were having this debate today, where a member of council thought it was useful to use sexualized language to talk about why anybody would put a bylaw like this in place,” she said.
“I would encourage you all to review that video and ask that council member why he thought using sexualized language in chambers was appropriate.”
Just before heading into a closed session meeting, LWC approached Chu and asked if he felt his comments were appropriate for a public meeting.
“Sorry, I don’t have time. I have a meeting,” he responded.
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‘Weakness in the discourse’: MRU political scientist
When MRU political scientist Duane Bratt first saw the exchange in council between Chu and Gondek, he said he focused on Chu not appearing remorseful for using the phrase. The phrase was inappropriate, but Bratt said he wasn’t completely offended.
When he reviewed the full video clip and saw that it appeared Coun. Chu was reading the script from his phone, Bratt said that amounted to a level of pre-meditation.
“I originally thought that had to be an off-the-cuff statement. But no, he consciously wrote that,” Bratt said.
“That makes it much worse.”
Bratt said there have been coarse politicians in the past, but most of the blue language was kept behind closed doors and not used in a public forum, he said.
“Now people seem more willing to say it in public and I think it is a weakness in the discourse,” he said.
Earlier this week, in an LWC story on safety at Calgary city hall, two city councillors – Coun. Jennifer Wyness and Coun. Andre Chabot – said that councillors and citizens should be able to respectfully disagree without deteriorating the quality of public discourse.
Chabot said that it needs to be called out when the quality of conversation drops to a level unbecoming of the council chambers from either citizens or from councillors.
“It’s not acceptable from either side; debate the issue, not the individuals and their position on the issue,” he said.
