Vancouver Park Board’s Coupar demands apology over ‘a-hole’ tweet

There’s been more drama at the Vancouver Park Board, this time over what one commissioner has described as an “inflammatory” post another member reportedly “liked” on Twitter.

Ahead of Tuesday’s discussion over vehicle traffic in Stanley Park, commissioner John Coupar took a point of privilege to demand an apology from Dave Demers, whom Coupar accused of liking a tweet that referred to him and a local journalist as an “a-hole.”

“Last night the board passed a code of conduct policy. Within hours of that, commissioner Demers ‘liked’ a tweet which called me, a fellow commissioner, an a-hole,” Coupar said Tuesday evening.

Commissioner and acting Chair Camil Dumont pointed out that Coupar’s concern appeared to be more of a personal concern than an urgent, Park-Board-agenda-related item — which Coupar refuted.

“This was in play in the public, this was against a member of the media, this was by a commissioner, and this is clearly not on side. All I’m asking is that the commissioner apologize for his behaviour,” Coupar, who is also a mayoral candidate in the upcoming civic election, replied. “This is not personal. If you want to get personal, I’ll tell you he also DM’d me last night, if you’d like to get personal.”


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Dumont responded by saying that he would not compel Demers to respond — but the latter did.

However, an apology isn’t exactly what Coupar got.

“It was brought to my attention that tweet that you are referencing here. Of course, it was inadvertently ‘liked’, as many things happen on Twitter. It was ‘unliked’ so hopefully that makes you feel better, commissioner Coupar,” he said. “The intention sure wasn’t to pass an opinion by a ‘like’ on Twitter late at night. I’ll keep it at that.”

Commissioners gathered Tuesday night after their meeting Monday was pushed back over what Dumont has suggested were safety concerns.

The meeting was to discuss the future of vehicle traffic in Stanley Park, among other things, with dozens of public speakers set to address the board.

Over the course of the meeting Monday, Dumont had to sternly remind both speakers and commissioners to stay on topic. But things came to a halt when a third speaker, a local lawyer, told the commissioners “we’ve lost faith with this board, we think it’s ideologically driven … your staff is ideological.”


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“I am feeling that this is a threat to me,” Dumont eventually said, after recessing the meeting briefly. The decision was later made to postpone the conversation to Tuesday.

Tuesday’s meeting was a much calmer affair on that front, after the Park Board took some precautions to keep the bike lane conversation on track.

Only one speaker was let in at a time and security was on-site to prevent a repeat of Monday.

In the end, commissioners voted to move ahead with a plan to look at the future of bike lanes in the park.

That report isn’t due back until next year.

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