Public or not? City councillor town hall meeting comes under scrutiny after vlogger prevented from recording

Coun. Susan Stevenson asked a vlogger to stop recording at a townhall last week. CTV’s Bryan Bicknell brings the story.

A London video blogger is sounding off about transparency at public meetings after he says he was asked to stop recording at a city councillor’s town hall meeting last week.

“Susan came and asked, you see in that clip, for me to stop recording,” explained Ben Durham in an interview with CTV News.

“I did not because it’s a public event and I theoretically should be able to record. And so, I went back to my seat and that was that. And then about two minutes later she came and turned my tripod around,” he continued.

Durham says he was attending Ward 4 Councillor Susan Stevenson’s town hall meeting at Boyle Community Centre on September 10 when he was asked to stop filming. When he did not, Stevenson personally took his camera and tripod and relocated it to another area of the room.

He posted the incident, with his personal commentary of it, on various social media platforms.

Stevenson told CTV News she asked Durham to stop recording once she realized people in the crowd were growing uncomfortable with the presence of the video camera.

“There’s ways to behave and to get what you want in a respectable way. And there’s ways to be a disruptor and to try to get views on TikTok. So it’s a free country, he can do what he likes, but I get to protect the people who attend my town halls,” she exclaimed.

Public meetings, such as city council meetings, are all open to the public. Reporters show up, people take video and it’s all normal and expected. But where does a city councillor’s personal town hall meeting stand?

“I don’t think anyone can claim that they have a right under any municipal act to even attend this meeting, let alone record it,” said Andrew Sancton, a retired professor of municipal politics at Western University.

Sancton says the rules of public meetings under the Municipal Act do not apply to less formal councillor town hall meetings.

“If a councillor is just having a public meeting of his own or her own, even in a public building with public funds, there’s still no municipal clerk there. Minutes aren’t being recorded. So, in that sense it’s not official at all,” he explained.

Sancton says the conflict could have been avoided.

“Just say ‘I’m recording the meeting, and are there any problems with that?’” he said.

Stevenson says, going forward, cameras will be allowed.

“And I’ll make sure there’s an area set up and we have some sort of conduct, rules so that people don’t feel intimidated. But, I welcome that going forward, it’s no problem at all,” she said.

As for Ben Durham, he says he hasn’t decided whether to file any formal complaints.

“I have to look into that, because again, I am not a lawyer and I mostly am just trying to make sure that people feel comfortable to film in the future,” he said.