The Nova Scotia Federation of Municipalities (NSFM) is sounding the alarm on offensive comments and threats made against elected officials as hostility seems to grow.
President-elect, David Mitchell tells our newsroom that this kind of thing has been an ongoing issue at all orders of government, but it was time to increase the public’s awareness.
“It’s kind of ramped up a little bit with an alarming increase in the threats to personal harm, sexual violence, things like that,” says Mitchell.
He says the problem escalates past having a “thick skin” over rude comments when someone is being threatening.
“I’m going to use a real-world example,” says Mitchell. “Threatening to burn a politician’s house down with their family in it. You can’t have thick skin for that because it’s scary and it shakes you and it shakes your family. It really impacts your whole community.”
Michell says these are death threats and this is what is happening.
It is unclear who exactly he was referring to, however the NSFM says in a release, some officials including Yarmouth mayor and current president Pam Mood received comments that were derogatory and physically threatening.
In some cases, they were so serious they were handed over to police.
Why has it gotten worse?
There was recently a pause to parts of Nova Scotia’s Code of Conduct that would stop the public from being able to complain about municipal officials.
This, Mitchell says, appeared to be part of the reason for the influx of harassment which really is a symptom of a larger problem, especially with social media.
“There’s this belief that there’s some anonymity and that we can just say whatever we want,” says Mitchell. “I want to make sure that freedom of speech is different from freedom to be offensive or threatening.”
Solution unclear
There is a fall conference of the NSFM in Halifax early November, where growing threats to municipal officials will be discussed.
However, Mitchell says, he doesn’t know what the solution will be.
“What I hope it’s not, I will say, is that we see people stepping away from their role as an elected official,” says Mitchell.
He says dozens of people across the province at different orders of government did not reoffer in elections because they were uncomfortable and felt unsafe returning to council.
Others, he adds, have walked away from using social media.
“Then, the community loses that outlet and that engagement,” explains Mitchell. “So, I don’t know what the answer is.”
He asks that the public be respectful when reaching out to an elected official.
“The notion that it just comes with the job… that has to change.”
