The gravel is irrelevant.
What seems clear after Prince George city council kicked the matter around Monday night is that somebody gave permission for somebody to move city-owned gravel to the Moccasin Flats encampment without proper authorization.
Was it theft?
The Prince George RCMP investigated and said there wasn’t enough evidence to warrant charges against anyone.
Case closed.
But not closed in the eyes of city councillors Kyle Sampson and Cori Ramsay.
They had the gall – at a closed city council meeting out of the public eye, no less – to bring forward a motion for city council to direct administration to formally request the RCMP reopen the investigation. The motion subsequently stated that if the RCMP declined, that the Officer In Charge provide a written letter and a verbal explanation to council why the request was denied.
And if that, too, was denied, administration would bring back options to council “to pursue the matter further, including the potential for private investigation.”
Thankfully, the motion was defeated by the rest of city council.
But Sampson and Ramsay wouldn’t let it go.
Instead, they brought another motion forward, directing administration “to invite the RCMP to provide a status report regarding the theft of the missing gravel and following receipt of that report, Council may inquire if the RCMP is willing to reopen the investigation, and if so, that that be done.”
That motion was also defeated.
It is alarming to say the least that at a meeting closed to the public, Sampson and Ramsay wanted to use their political positions to direct the Prince George RCMP on how to conduct its business.
Their concern for the alleged theft of public property and their dissatisfaction that an RCMP investigation did not lead to criminal charges is no justification for their egregious actions.
Two city councillors eager to apply political pressure on local law enforcement to take action is bad enough.
For those same two politicians, who have a hand in deciding the annual funding and staffing levels of the Prince George RCMP, to request a specific investigation be reopened, and then demand an explanation if that case isn’t reopened, is way offside.
In a time where police officers and agencies are frequently accused of overstepping their authority, Sampson and Ramsay shamefully overstepped their authority here and that's far more worrisome than what happened to a pile of gravel or who gave the order to move it.
It was only the wisdom of their fellow city councillors that stopped them and then allowed residents to learn what they tried to do behind closed doors.
Neil Godbout is the Citizen’s editor.
