- by John Tamming

I appreciate the feedback to my article (below) on recent city council proceedings. My comments were shut down at council and I was not permitted to challenge Mr. O’Leary’s conduct apart from an extended complaint process through a complaints office. I have regretfully now triggered that process.

My original article included a reference to a councillor’s family member. That reference may have been necessary to provide context for one of Mr. O’Leary’s outbursts but in retrospect, I should not have named a city employee. I have deleted the reference and apologized to the employee.

We have an issue with bullying. Councillor O’Leary has repeatedly engaged in public and personal attacks on his peers, in derogatory put downs of other councillors.

I thought this might improve with time. It has not. I thought I would approach him privately and get him to apologize and change his style. That didn’t work.

I thought the chair might be able and willing to shut the ad hominem attacks down. But either the chair does not care or is incapable of controlling this councillor.

Indulging this conduct only hinders democratic debate.

Various Instances of Bullying

Councillor Merton: At our last council meeting, Councillor Merton was opposed to designating a particular city address as a drug and crime “hot spot”. She had sound arguments (and, in fact, almost persuaded me). Rather than engage with her on the level of ideas, Councillor O’Leary went personal, mansplained a few things to her and said it’s “too bad you did not educate yourself.” When Councillor Grieg asked him to retract the insult, O’Leary refused.

Councillor Grieg: Some months ago, council was discussing Grey Gables. Councillor Grieg thought it should stay open, Councillor O’Leary disagreed. Rather than engage him on the merits, during a break, Councillor O’Leary went low. He accused Scott of having to “listen to his daddy”. The mayor properly cautioned Mr. O’Leary, told him he could not say that and one of them walked out to calm down. Two hours later, Councillor O’Leary went up to Mr. Grieg, got into his face, told him his submissions at council were “a joke” and again taunted him for listening to “your daddy”. It was school yard nastiness at its worst.

Both instances comprised appalling and uncivilized conduct. I have no idea if Councillors Grieg or Merton and O’Leary have come to terms. For my purposes, that is irrelevant: it was open, public bullying and affects all our interactions.

Councillor Tamming: In response to my motion on the police budget, Councillor O’Leary went on a personal rant against me which many city residents found appalling. Rather than deal with the issues, relying on prepared remarks, he launched a sustained written character assassination. He attacked my alleged ignorance, he attacked my habit of explaining my positions in writing to our city papers, he attacked my failure to establish relationships. He then lied about me not wanting to be on the city police board (Councillor Koepke had insisted to me that she be on it) and defended a police budget, large parts of which he himself had said he did not understand.

During the election, I emailed Mr. O’Leary about his poorly thought out investment in Mudtown (it may have technically been legal but that is beside the point).

Payback came a short time later at the all candidates meeting when, in a completely bizarre non sequitur, he mocked my home at Cobble Beach and said to me afterwards “you had it coming”.

The Pernicious Effects of Bullying

If this behavior was one off, we could ignore it. Unfortunately, it has become part of a pattern. This kind of bullying and nastiness has a wider impact. It chills dialogue. It renders timorous those who may dissent. It discourages us as councillors from going into the corners.

These are not unplanned explosions by an angry man. No, this is about crossing Councillor O’Leary and the price you pay for doing so. That he holds the office of Deputy Mayor makes it all the worse.

The Path Forward

I don’t want to involve the Office of the Integrity Commissioner over this. Mr. O’Leary’s Mudtown adventures have already cost us a $10,000 cheque to that office for its investigation of him.

I want the good councillor to change his approach to other councillors. And I want the mayor to stand up to him and cut off the personal attacks the minute they are launched. Democratic debate in this city demands no less.