Vancouver councillor calls for stricter punishment for online harassment

An outgoing Vancouver city councillor says the online harassment and personal attacks she received from a person appointed by the city are not being met with an appropriate response.

A City of Vancouver Integrity Commissioner’s report from Oct. 19 found co-chair of the Vancouver Renters Advisory Committee, Kit Sauder, had breached the city’s code of conduct by making online comments about councillor Colleen Hardwick. His comments on the “VanPoli” Facebook group called her “the witch of the Westside” among other things.

The conclusion of the report recommends a “letter of reprimand” be sent to Sauder, along with committee members receiving training on the code of conduct.

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Hardwick, however, doesn’t believe the punishment goes far enough.

“I think it’s important that people be called out for inappropriate behavior, particularly when they’ve been honored by the city with appointments to committees,” she told CityNews. “Social media, of course, has become very disturbing, because there don’t seem to be any consequences for bad behavior. I would have appreciated perhaps an apology.”

“I think it’s become epidemic. I just think that perhaps there should be, you know, more significant consequences because it does reflect badly back on the city as an institution,” Hardwick said.

The Integrity Commissioner’s report says Sauder admitted his comments were misogynistic but argued that it wasn’t clear that he was referring to Hardwick. Despite that, the report says Sauder still violated a section of the code of conduct regarding bullying and intimidation.

Hardwick says the situation points to a larger issue of the vitriol women in politics face on social media.

“It is clearly a trend that has been playing itself across different levels of government. But, frankly, who wants to put themselves in the line of fire for this kind of behavior?” she said. “It’s really uncalled for. It’s one thing to disagree with someone on a policy point but to denigrate them with ad hominem attacks, personal attacks, I think, is just reprehensible.”

It’s the second Integrity Commissioner report Hardwick has been involved in this year. The first found outgoing Mayor Kennedy Stewart violated the code of conduct when made tweets directed at Hardwick regarding the proposed 2030 Olympic bid plebiscite.

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Despite favourable results for the councillor in both reports, Hardwick says they won’t help much.

“In each case, there were really no consequences, either to now outgoing Mayor Kennedy Stewart or now to co-chair of the renter’s Advisory Committee, Kit Sauder. So, if there aren’t any real consequences, that’s not much of a deterrent,” she said.

Hardwick will not hold an elected position at city hall after an unsuccessful campaign for mayor of Vancouver.

Ken Sim and an ABC Vancouver majority council and school board will officially be sworn in on Nov. 7.