A draft policy Gimli council released last month to govern the livestreaming of municipal meetings includes provisions that allow for the termination and subsequent editing of the audio-visual recordings.
But some councillors have concerns about the potential for censorship, and the draft is expected to be reviewed again at council’s upcoming August meeting.
Titled “Livestreaming and Recording of Legislative Meetings,” the policy is posted under the agenda for the July 17 committee of the whole meeting.
The policy states that its purpose is to “provide guidelines for the live streaming and management of video recordings of Regular Meetings of Council.”
As it’s currently written, the policy will give the chair of meetings – typically the mayor or deputy mayor during council meetings – the power to stop the film by way of majority vote. That power is, ostensibly, to be used only during “exceptional” circumstances.
A clause under the policy’s Risk Mitigation section states:
“Accordingly, the legislative body, by way of majority vote, the Chair, has the discretion and authority at any time to direct the termination or interruption of the live streaming and recording of the meeting if they consider it prudent or advisable to do so. Such direction will only be given in exceptional circumstances.”
Although “exceptional circumstances” are not defined in the Definition section of the policy, it is stated in the body of the document that statements considered “incorrect,” “offensive” or “defamatory” and so forth can lead to the termination or interruption of the livestreaming.
It’s unclear whether opinions expressed by a councillor could be potentially characterized as “incorrect” or otherwise, and lead to the taping being terminated and the comment(s) later excised from the recording.
In addition to the termination or interruption of the recording, the RM’s chief administrative officer will be given the power to edit recordings before they’re released for public consumption.
“Following the meeting, [the] CAO has the discretion and authority to direct the exclusion of all or part of any meeting recording that is considered inappropriate to be published according to existing policies and by-laws of the municipality. Such discretion will be used only in exceptional circumstances,” states the policy.
The policy provides a definition of “inappropriate” material, which includes discrimination, the disclosure of confidential or privileged information, false or misleading information, an infringement of copyright, and matters that are eligible for in-camera (private) meetings.
Livestreamed recordings will be publicly available on the RM’s website, web-based video management applications and social media sites for a period of one year from the date of the meeting, according to the policy.
Coun. Andy Damm said that during the July 17 meeting he had expressed his concern about the possibility of producing incomplete and inaccurate records of meetings.
He said that if a member of the public attending a council meeting behaves in an offensive or otherwise troubling manner that is deemed unsuitable for public broadcast, or if there’s inadvertent council discussion relating to something such as a criminal matter or to an RM employee, council should have the ability to interrupt the livestream “connection,” similar to the way live broadcasts can be taken off the air. But the recording itself should not be stopped and it should not be altered in any way. And he recommends those recordings be permanently archived.
“The first draft of the livestreaming policy does not encompass a modern-day scenario of preserving instead of expunging records,” said Damm.
Coun. Richard Petrowski said he, too, has concerns about the clauses in the policy that could allow for potential interference.
“I would like to have more discussion about this policy before those clauses are considered,” said Petrowski.
David Driedger, the City of Winnipeg’s manager of corporate communications, told the Express that it’s the city’s practice to livestream “all public committee meetings” and make them available to the public “on-demand” after the meeting concludes.
The city also edits the recordings, but only to remove portions of a meeting where a break or a recess has been taken.
“Generally speaking, we edit all videos to remove the downtime when the committee takes a recess or lunch break,” said Driedger. “When we livestream meetings, we leave the stream running during breaks with a message saying, ‘Committee is Currently in Recess.’ After the meeting concludes, our staff cut those portions out to limit the video size that we publish on YouTube.”
Other Gimli council news:
-Council’s July 17 meeting – the first that included the RM’s new interim CAO Jim Fenske – entailed a review of council’s Code of Conduct, which was written and passed by a previous iteration of council under mayor Lynn Greenberg.
-Council reviewed a letter from the Manitoba Metis Federation regarding the MMF’s preferred language in the RM’s land acknowledgement statement. The MMF’s engagement and consultation department thanked the RM for having updated its language.
“The MMF acknowledges your commitment to updating the language within your acknowledgement to reflect the lands of the Red River Metis as the ‘National Homeland of the Red River Metis,’” states the letter. “Since the Manitoba Metis Self-Government and Recognition and Implementation Agreement was signed in 2021, this agreement immediately recognized the MMF as the existing government of the Red River Metis.”
The RM removed the words “birthplace and homeland of the Metis Nation” from its land acknowledgement statement and changed it to the following:
“The RM of Gimli recognizes its presence on the traditional territory of the Anishinaabe, Cree, Oji-Cree, Dakota and Dene peoples, and the National Homeland of the Red River Metis.”
– A business on Gimli Park Road will be requesting from council a rezoning of land that’s currently designated as part residential single-family and part agricultural limited zone to commercial highway zone in order to allow for the expansion of the business. Parkside Machine & Service wants to expand its existing site to the east.
The public hearing is scheduled for Sept. 11 in council chambers at 6:20 p.m.
