Say Goodbye | Green Party of Vancouver elected officials currently sitting on City Council, School Board and Park Board (save David Wong, pictured lower right)
Continuing from Part One of our three-part series on why Vancouver City Councillor Michael Wiebe must resign his position on Council …
Stalemate | Aggrieved Citizens Head to the B.C. Supreme Court
With receipt of the investigator’s report written by respected municipal affairs lawyer and UBC professor, Raymond E. Young, submitted on September 12, 2020 to Vancouver City Manager Sadhu Johnston, and Mayor Kennedy Stewart, mandating that Green Party of Vancouver City Councillor Michael Wiebe is duty bound to resign his seat on Council, arising from an egregious Code of Conduct violation and undeclared Conflict of Interest, and that Mr. Wiebe not further be allowed to run for office for any elected body in the period prior to the next municipal election (in the autumn of 2022), and the subsequent refusal — thus far — by Councillor Wiebe, or any of his Green Party of Vancouver colleagues, to validate Mr. Young’s findings and recommendation, the question arises …
Where do the good citizens of Vancouver, and Mr. Wiebe’s colleagues on Vancouver City Council go from here, what comes next in the process of resolution respecting the scandalous fiasco that currently consumes both the attention of Vancouver’s beleaguered City Councillors, and citizens?
Vancouver City Councillor Sarah Kirby-Yung states in the tweet above, posted on the morning of September 21st, 2020, that she and other Councillors have a legal obligation that precludes our elected Councillors from speaking on an “open code of conduct investigation.” In point of fact, there is no “open” code of conduct investigation — that investigation came to a conclusion on the morning of Saturday, September 12th, when investigator and lawyer Raymond E. Young submitted his completed report to Vancouver City Manager Sadhu Johnston, and to the office of the Mayor, Kennedy Stewart.
Readers should know that on Monday morning, September 21st, 2020, Francie J Connell, the City of Vancouver’s longtime Director of Legal Services, posted an e-mail to Mayor and Council advising our elected officials that they may not discuss the matter of the recommendation made by Raymond E. Young mandating that their fellow Councillor Michael Wiebe must resign his office — neither with each other, nor most particularly in the public weal, lest they themselves find that they are charged with a Code of Conduct violation. Such order by the city’s top legal official effectively muzzles our elected officials. Wonder why you haven’t heard boo from Lisa Dominato, Colleen Hardwick, Rebecca Bligh, Christine Boyle, Mayor Kennedy Stewart, and the remaining members of Council in the current circumstance involving Councillor Wiebe? Now, you know why.
Vancouver City Council, 2018 thru 2022, left to right: Councillors Rebecca Bligh, Christine Boyle, Colleen Hardwick, Pete Fry, Adriane Carr, Mayor Kennedy Stewart, Melissa De Genova, Jean Swanson, Michael Wiebe, Lisa Dominato, and Sarah Kirby-Yung.
There is an option open to Vancouver’s City Councillors to bring a motion forward to Council mandating that their colleague, Michael Wiebe, resign his seat on Council, requiring a two-third vote of Council in favour of such a motion. Were such a motion to pass, there would be no force of law behind it, as the Municipal Affairs Act of British Columbia does not allow for the removal of an elected official by her or his fellow Council colleagues.
The only other avenue of redress should Councillor Michael Wiebe choose not to voluntarily resign as a City Councillor in the city of Vancouver, would be for 10 citizens / registered voters within the city of Vancouver to take the matter to the British Columbia Supreme Court, asking the courts to enforce the recommendation of the authorized investigator hired by the City of Vancouver, to enforce the investigator’s mandated recommendation: that Councillor Wiebe be ordered by the Court to vacate his Council seat.
VanRamblings is advised that such a process is now underway.
Not to get too deep into the woods, but quite honestly Michael Wiebe and City of Vancouver Councillors, and the Mayor do not want this matter proceeding to the courts. Why not?
Any time one goes to court, not only can the outcome of the court proceeding not reasonably be predicted, the Supreme Court Justice could very well expand the scope of the proceedings, and rule in ways that Councillors and the City might find injurious, substantively limiting the power and authority of elected officials and staff at The Hall going forward.
A digression. Here’s an example of how things can go awry. In 2006, the Board of Variance sued the Mayor and Council for their unprecedented decision to remove all of the appointed members of the Board, to be replaced by individuals associated with the majority party in civic office. Respected jurist George McIntosh — then considered to be one of the top 25 lawyers in Canada, and at present a British Columbia Supreme Court Justice — was hired to argue the City’s case. The position of the City prevailed — a new Board was appointed by Mayor Sam Sullivan’s Council.
Although the matter had not been raised during the court proceeding, in his ruling, the Supreme Court Justice who heard the matter, found that a central provision of the mandate of Boards of Variance in British Columbia was ultra vires, ordering the revocation of the authority of Boards of Variance to hear “third party appeals” — which is to say, from that day forward Boards of Variance, as they had done for 55 years, could no longer provide a forum for aggrieved citizens to argue that the city (or more particularly, developers) must not move forward with a development citizens believed was contrary to the best interests of, or was detrimental to, the citizenry of a neighbourhood within the city where they reside.
Here’s what VanRamblings believes will happen when the matter of Councillor Michael Wiebe’s resignation from Vancouver City Council, arising from an egregious conflict of interest, and self-dealing, is heard by the Court: the Court will order Mr. Wiebe to vacate his Council seat forthwith.
VanRamblings believes, however, that the Justice will not limit her / his jurisdiction in the matter to the simple removal of Mr. Wiebe from office. Rather, we believe that the complainants will be awarded court costs, such that Mr. Wiebe — and the Green Party of Vancouver — will be liable for tens of thousands of dollars for having brought the matter forward to the Courts, when the simplest resolution to the matter would have been for Councillor Wiebe to abide by the recommendation of the investigator.
In addition, it is probable that the Justice will revoke the provisions of the Code of Conduct of the City of Vancouver, a code that serves to prevent Councillors from properly carrying out their responsibilities to the citizens of Vancouver who elected them to office. Even more, it is highly probable that the Justice will effectively re-write existing provincial municipal affairs law that precludes members of an elected body from removing an elected official who has engaged in conduct detrimental to the interests of the citizenry — going forward, then, any elected official who “acts out” in an unparliamentary fashion, be it on Council, School Board or - in Vancouver - Park Board, may be removed from office, either by a two-thirds vote of her / his colleagues, or arising from an investigative report recommendation that the elected official be removed from office.
Further, VanRamblings believes it to be entirely likely that, sooner than later, the province of British Columbia will step in to bring resolution to matters respecting Councillor Wiebe’s removal from Vancouver City Council. Although there is a provincial election underway, and Ministers of the Crown are now candidates, and not officials of the government carrying out their ministerial responsibilities, it is entirely likely that British Columbia’s Deputy Minister of Municipal Affairs, Kaye Krishna, could ask the Deputy Minister for the Attorney General, Richard Fyfe, to appoint a Special Prosecutor to investigate the particular circumstance involving Councillor Michael Wiebe.
