Plainclothes RCMP officers were in the audience for the second night of the Official Community Plan public hearing on the evening of Wednesday, April 9, the City of Prince George has confirmed.
On Thursday, April 10, councillors Brian Skakun and Trudy Klassen raised concerns on social media about the presence of the officers as well as the fact that council was unaware of the situation until after the meeting had concluded.
The Citizen requested an interview with city manager Walter Babicz regarding the situation on Friday, April 11 but was instead provided with a statement attributed to the city as a whole saying that after the first night of the public hearing on March 19, “staff raised concerns about safety, and the city inquired with the RCMP about the support that could be offered for the second public hearing date.”
“It was intended to be a responsible measure to maintain a safe environment for everyone, while preserving the open and welcoming atmosphere that public hearings are meant to foster,” the statement said.
“It’s important to note that varying levels of security are always present at council meetings and other city events, depending on the number of people in attendance and the nature of the meeting.”
This decision was not made in response to a specific threat, the statement said. The city also said that officers have been present at previous events where large attendance is anticipated like at a May 28, 2024 town hall event focusing on public safety.
The issue was first raised on social media by Klassen, who posted on X (formerly Twitter) that she was asking Babicz for all the information that led to the request for police presence and the rationale used to decide keep that information from council.
Later that day, Skakun wrote in a Facebook post to the Ginter’s Green Forever group that he noticed a couple of people who stayed still and didn’t interact with anyone else during the hearing, prompting him to ask Babicz whether police were present.
“Something didn’t feel right, so I emailed our city manager immediately after the meeting ended and asked whether the RCMP had any plainclothes members attend the OCP meeting in council chambers,” Skakun wrote. “He confirmed that the RCMP had indeed attended the meeting, but no reason was given for their presence.”
Speaking with The Citizen on the morning of Friday, April 11, Skakun said he was concerned that mayor and council were kept in the dark. If staff felt threatened, he wondered why a staff member from development services was allowed to sit in the crowd.
In his long experience on council, Skakun said, he couldn’t recall plainclothes RCMP officers having been in the audience previously through he did remember uniformed officers being at the public safety town hall.
“At that point, I expressed my concern because it was a little intimidating,” Skakun said. “You walk in, you got like three or four police officers standing at the door and people didn’t know what to make of it.”
He said there must have been meetings between staff and senior management on this issue and he’d like to see the related emails and minutes to make sure everything was handled properly.
Council is already privy to legal materials and other information handled in closed meetings and Skakun said they could have been trusted with the information ahead of time. He clarified that he was not blaming the RCMP, who were only doing what they were asked.
In a phone interview, Klassen also recalled the town hall meeting and said the city manager had defended the presence of uniformed officers by saying they needed to be clearly identifiable to react more quickly.
“I don’t care so much about us, we’re politicians,” Klassen said of the April 9 meeting. “But for our staff, who was targeted? Who was making the threats? Why were plainclothes officers (there)? That’s just weird. And why was there a staff member sitting front and centre in the gallery? That’s really concerning.”
Neither Skakun nor Klassen said they felt threatened by any of the correspondence they received about the OCP or by behaviour during either night of the public hearing.
Klassen said some of her colleagues told her the matter should be discussed in a closed meeting, but she feels that it should be talked about out in the open so the members of the public who attended the hearing can find out why the officers were there.
Several people who responded to Skakun’s Facebook post expressed concern over the officers’ presence.
That included Jenn Matthews, an organizer with Ginter’s Green Forever, a group calling on the city to include more protections for Ginter’s Green and Moore’s Meadow in the updated OCP.
She wondered what the attendees had done at the March 19 hearing to make staff feel threatened.
“I don’t know what kind of response you would expect from a police officer at a public hearing where all you’re doing is going to the desk and saying your ideas,” Matthews said in a phone interview.
“This isn’t a protest. It wasn’t a rally in a public space where unexpected things could happen. This was a public meeting where I actually think, considering how passionate people are about this, everybody was really respectful.
“I know there was a few people who maybe did some name calling. Maybe the gallery wasn’t acting in a completed neutral way, which is expected (at a meeting like that). That is no reason to have police officers or to feel like your safety’s threatened.”
Matthews said she agreed with Klassen’s call for a public report, because otherwise people might assume that the Ginter’s Green supporters were the problem. She added that she worries that police presence at meetings might dissuade some members of the public from speaking their minds.
The Citizen has reached out to Mayor Simon Yu and the RCMP for comment. This story will be updated.
