N.B. municipal leaders meet to find solutions to harassment
CBC
St. Stephen Mayor Allan MacEachern said he deals regularly with harassment from the public.
So do other members of his council. As it turns out, most municipal politicians in the province do as well.
A new report released by the Union of Municipalities of New Brunswick and L'Association francophone des municipalités du Nouveau-Brunswick revealed that more than 80 per cent of politicians who responded experienced harassment from the public. The study involved 48 English and 30 French local elected officials.
The report was released in Fredericton this weekend at a symposium on harassment and intimidation.
MacEachern said much of the harassment comes from comments on social media. He said it discourages people from entering municipal politics.
"You're scaring away good leaders and I'm really nervous about that, and I'm struggling," he said.
Brittany Merrifield, the union's president and mayor of Grand Bay-Westfield, agrees with MacEachern’s assessment.
“We're really concerned about recruitment and retention of our elected officials, whether it's for local government, whether provincial government or whether it's federal government,” she said.
“It's a tough job and when you have to deal with external factors such as harassment and intimidation, it makes it even more difficult.”
She said while harassment is a national problem, it could benefit from a provincial solution. The report says New Brunswick's framework for dealing with harassment is “weak, with limited prevention, reporting, and accountability.”
It suggests “fines, penalties and no-tolerance policies to curb abuse.”
It calls for more training and education for politicians and the public. Merrifield said she hopes the province will invest in that area.
“It's not going to help us tomorrow, but it will help the councils of the future," she said.
Prospectors staked claims around Nova Scotia in high numbers this year after Premier Tim Houston unveiled his new open-arms approach to natural resource development.
The Holt Liberals have found a way to keep their promise of lower gas prices just days before Christmas.
A man convicted of human smuggling last year has asked a United States court to continue his appeal without a lawyer, in a case where a family from India froze to death near the Manitoba-U.S. border in 2022.
The dream of those who wanted to breathe new life into Saskatoon’s bus barns in Caswell Hill is expected to come tumbling down next year.
Jill Finn is still haunted by the voice.
P.E.I.'s deputy premier Bloyce Thompson is expected to be sworn in as the province's next premier one day after Rob Lantz announced his resignation from the role and his bid for the permanent leadership of the province’s Progressive Conservative Party.
WARNING: This article may affect those who have experienced sexual violence or know someone affected by it.
The Ontario government has sided with the City of Hamilton in its push to continue a long-delayed James Street N., housing redevelopment, which proposes the creation of several hundred homes in the north end.
There's still no timeline on the official designation of an Ojibway National Urban Park — and a Parks Canada representative is asking the community to adjust its expectations.
As the cost of groceries continues to increase, one Edmonton organization is harnessing the power of bulk buying to ensure its members aren’t going hungry at a critical time every month.
A drug alert has been issued in Thunder Bay, Ont., over a toxic substance first found in Toronto earlier this fall.
Ontario’s municipal affairs minister says the province will move forward with a much-delayed mandatory review of the Greenbelt, but opposition critics say there's still no word on when the study of the ecologically sensitive zone will take place or who will conduct it.
A three-year-old girl is dead and a 31-year-old woman suffered serious injuries after they were hit by a vehicle near a Cambridge, Ont., plaza on Thursday afternoon.