Whitehorse city council passes civility policy

Participants who come to Whitehorse city council meetings can now be sanctioned for a variety of reasons, including for wearing offensive clothing, after councillors passed a civility policy Monday night.

The policy passed in a 4-2 vote with two amendments, after much discussion by city councillors and input from five public delegates. Council also received emails on the issue this past week.

The new policy allows sanctions for clothing that has "language, statements or imagery that is detrimental, discriminatory, offensive, profane, [racist], sexist, violent [or] vulgar," but thanks to an amendment from Mayor Laura Cabott, doesn't prohibit clothing that advocates for a cause beyond council's roles and responsibilities.

Participants can object to being sanctioned, but a member of council would have to promptly appeal to whoever is leading the meeting in order for a sanction to be reconsidered. The policy can, if necessary, be enforced by bylaw officers.

"It's to ensure that everyone is treated with dignity, respect and civility in the meetings, that ensures people's safety as well as an effective use of time of the meeting," Cabott said.

"It recognizes that each citizen's right to freedom of thought, belief and opinion and expression is protected — but that also needs to be balanced with the rights, with reasonable limits, to maintain a safe, productive and harassment-free workplace."

Yukon Morning6:10Whitehorse City Council voted to approve a civility policy

Whitehorse City Council voted to pass a Civility policy. The policy would allow the person leading the meeting to sanction participants.These sanctions could go as far as banning members of the public from future council meetings. The draft policy targeted participants' attire and lacked any sort of appeals process. Before the council discussion, Whitehorse residents were given a chance to comment on the policy. Antoine Goulet was one of them.

Coun. Michelle Friesen said she thinks council, staff and members of the public all deserve to feel safe, but she worries the policy could put up barriers that discourage people from sharing their perspectives.

"There is a big difference between being racist, hateful, sexist and vulgar and things that we just don't like to hear," she said.

The general intent of the policy drew approval from the five public delegates who appeared, but they criticized its lack of clarity. Before Cabott's amendments, the idea of sanctions for clothing that advocated for a cause drew concern from one of the delegates, Antoine Goulet.

Addressing council while wearing a keffiyeh scarf to show support for Palestinian liberation and a button that said "Water over wealth" — a reference to the heap leach failure at the Eagle gold mine near Mayo — Goulet said he felt efforts to sanction him for those would violate his free speech.

"I'm not wearing this as a call to action to the city," he said. "I'm proud to show what I stand for, and council should not limit my right to express myself like that through my clothing."

He also suggested that now-removed section could lead to "unfair profiling."

Molly Swain, another public delegate, said the draft policy was both misguided and likely in violation of human rights legislation.

"I … want to discuss the weaponization of the concept of civility as a disciplinary mechanism to silence and maintain control," Swain said. She went on to cite how historically everything from cultural regalia to traditional face tattoos have been policed in chambers of power. 

Other sections of the policy prohibit people from bringing signs into council meetings and directs people to refrain from clapping, making noise, having conversations or otherwise interfering with the meeting.