Vancouver council’s seven ABC councillors voted Tuesday to reject the integrity commissioner’s recommendation that Mayor Ken Sim receive a letter of reprimand for excluding a new mom from a private meeting to discuss the abolition of the elected park board.
The councillors said Sim had already apologized to park commissioner Laura Christensen via a phone call and in a letter that he posted Monday to the X social media platform. Christensen was elected with Sim’s ABC party and now sits as an independent.
“A letter of reprimand — and I did a lot of research since seeing this [recommendation] — means many different things in many different sectors,” said ABC Coun. Rebecca Bligh. “At the end of the day, it doesn't solve the issue.”
Integrity commissioner Lisa Southern recommended in her Feb. 24 report that a letter of reprimand be among the sanctions council impose on the mayor. The others were a letter of apology to Christensen and further training for council on human rights’ obligations and training for the mayor’s employees on the same.
The ABC councillors agreed Tuesday to training, with ABC Coun. Lisa Dominato successfully introducing an amendment that will also see Sim and his office employees participate in a workshop on “fostering an inclusive workplace for pre and post-natal mothers, parents and caregivers, as well as employees returning to work.”
At issue was a Dec. 5 meeting that Sim held in his office, where he excluded Christensen because she was unable to attend in person. Christensen had given birth four weeks previous but was not allowed to attend remotely.
The next day, Sim announced publicly that he wanted to abolish the elected park board.
'A poor showing'
Southern said in her report that Sim created a “discriminatory work environment” when he did not give Christensen an opportunity to remotely attend the meeting.
“Mayor Sim’s actions created a distinction based on commissioner Christensen’s sex and family status, and this had an adverse impact on her,” Southern said.
“He knew commissioner Christensen had a newborn. Previously, her situation had been accommodated by allowing her to attend meetings remotely because attending in person in the later stages of pregnancy, or with a newborn were challenging.”
Councillors heard Tuesday that Southern’s recommendations would have come before council after the March break but Green Party Coun. Pete Fry introduced a motion Tuesday to have them heard by councillors.
Sim wasn’t in the chamber, and away on civic business.
Fry’s motion included the letter of reprimand — a point he made during debate.
“Perhaps this is not the look that that ABC councillors would like to sign on to as far as this letter of reprimand, but it is articulated in the integrity commissioner’s recommendations,” Fry said.
“I think that in the absence of actually writing a motion, or in the absence of actually writing a letter that we could have all signed on to, the decision here to just eliminate it is a poor showing.”
Dominato argued that a letter of reprimand had not been recommended in previous cases investigated by Southern, including reports involving former mayor Kennedy Stewart and former councillors Michael Wiebe and Colleen Hardwick.
She then acknowledged Christensen, who was in the council chamber with her daughter to hear the debate, and said:
“Laura, I apologize to you for this experience. But I do believe that the mayor has responded in a way where he has acknowledged the errors. He has apologized and is committed to doing further training along with council, along with the mayor's office staff.”
Bligh said the recommendations agreed to by ABC councillors go “well beyond” sanctions Southern recommended in her report. ABC Coun. Sarah Kirby-Yung said that when a human makes an error, she sees that as an opportunity for learning and education.
“That's the environment that I would like us to foster as opposed to an environment that is one of punishment,” Kirby-Yung said.
Christensen's reaction
Reached by telephone after the meeting, Christensen said she was disappointed in the ABC councillors. She said a letter of reprimand would have been only “fair,” considering what she went through.
“I don't think that they fully understand the impact that the mayor's actions had [on me],” she said.
“I was excluded from the press conference [where the mayor announced he wanted to abolish the board], I was excluded from the transition team and the transition planning meetings and, ultimately, it led to me not being with ABC anymore because of this — and really not having my voice heard in the entire abolishing-the-park-board debate.”
Christensen sits as an independent with Brennan Bastyovanszky and Scott Jensen, who also left ABC after Sim announced his intention to abolish the board. Premier David Eby said last week that Sim’s requested amendments to the Vancouver Charter to abolish the board will not be done until the next legislative session, which will come after the Oct. 19 provincial election.
Not deliberate, or intentional
The complaint before Southern, which triggered an investigation, was lodged by a citizen not known to Christensen.
In her report, Southern cautioned her ruling should not be interpreted that there was deliberate or intentional discrimination on the part of Sim. There was no evidence, she said, “that the exclusions found in this investigation that gave rise to a breach were done on purpose or by design by mayor Sim.”
To the contrary, she continued, Sim has demonstrated consistently his commitment to inclusion, diversity and human rights, and has attended all educational sessions hosted by her office on these topics.
“However, it is well established in human rights law that intent is not required for a finding of discrimination,” Southern said.
