City of Cambridge moves council meeting online following incident with ‘disruptive member of the public’

Tuesday’s Cambridge City Council meeting will be held virtually after the city received a threatening voicemail. CTV’s Heather Senoran reports.

A Cambridge city council meeting will be held online after an incident with a member of the public.

In a news release on Monday, the city said the meeting originally planned to take place at City Hall on Tuesday would now be held virtually.

“This change follows an incident earlier [Monday] following a disruptive member of the public,” the release said.

“[We] can confirm we received a call after 12 p.m. [Monday] from City of Cambridge security to report a threatening voicemail from a member of the community,” the Waterloo Regional Police Service said in an email to CTV News. “Security advised police they would be placing the facility in a hold and secure.”

According to the city, it was lifted a few hours later.

“The community member did not attend City Hall or any other city facility,” police said. “The involved community member has been trespassed from City of Cambridge properties and there are no grounds for any criminal charges at this time.”

The city did not elaborate on the situation.

On Tuesday, City Hall was still open but there was a new sign at the main entrance, pointing the public to use the other doors.

“Everyone is being directed in and out of one entrance for the time being. And that’s just giving security a greater opportunity to keep track of who is coming and going,” said Coun. Corey Kimpson.

Kimpson said she hasn’t done a fully virtual council meeting in years but she understands why the city decided to make this move.

“It’s just very important that everyone is keeping everyone’s safety top of mind while not impacting the democratic process and the public’s access to city hall and council meetings,” she said.

The council meeting will be streamed live on the city’s YouTube channel starting at 6:30 p.m.

“This is the first time I’ve ever had to go online in a council meeting because of any type of security threat,” Coun. Scott Hamilton told CTV News on Tuesday.

Hamilton has been a councillor for five years and said things started shifting recently.

“You do notice a bit more anger rising online, a few more angry phone calls, angry emails,” he said.

He said the community shouldn’t be too worried after this incident.

“[Your] head’s on a swivel a bit more than usual, but ultimately, we have to remember that Cambridge is a really safe place. The council chambers are a really safe place and we want to take an abundance of caution here, but we don’t want to stoke any fear or create any impression that this is the new normal,” he said.

The incident comes after the city announced last week there would be mandatory bag checks at all future council meetings. The new safety measure was set to begin on Tuesday.

At the time, the city said the change was made to enhance safety for council members, city staff and the public.