Whereas in recent years, there has been an alarming rise in incidents of harassment, intimidation and acts of violence aimed at local elected officials, compounding the already strenuous work conditions faced by many local leaders and hindering their retention; And whereas severe abuse, both online and in-person, has the potential to discourage candidates for local governments from joining and remaining engaged in local politics, limiting the diversity of opinion needed in healthy democracies: Therefore be it resolved that the BC government, work with UBCM, to identify and implement measures to protect all elected local government officials from harassment, intimidation, and threats, thereby reinforcing a unified front to safeguard democracy.
Ministry of Housing and Municipal Affairs The Province recognizes the importance of protecting local government elected officials from harassment and intimidation and the negative impacts of abuse of elected officials on our democracy. There is no place for intimidation or threats to any elected official and we encourage anyone who is experiencing potentially violent or threatening behaviour to report it to the local police. To help address these concerns, the Province has introduced legislation to better protect the privacy of candidates running for local government office. The ministry consulted with the Union of British Columbia Municipalities UBCM prior to enactment of this legislation. The legislation is intended to prevent members of the public from harassing candidates at their private home or phone number. This will help removing barriers that may have previously discouraged individuals, especially women, Black, Indigenous, and People of Colour and other marginalized people, from running for local government office. While these legislative measures represent an important step in protecting local government elected officials privacy, effectively combatting harassment of local government elected officials will require joint efforts from the Province and local governments to collectively make sure that local government elected officials have the tools and resources they need to feel safe while serving their communities as well as when they are running for elected office. The Province is open to working with UBCM to develop further measures to improve the protection of elected local government officials from harassment.