Hamilton council reprimands LGBTQ chair for information breach, but not for criticism

Hamilton city council has reprimanded the chair of its LGBTQ advisory committee after the city's integrity commissioner says he tweeted an unredacted motion with employee information in it.

Council voted 12-2 Wednesday to reprimand Cameron Kroetsch — which essentially is just a statement — after a report says he went against city clerk advice and tweeted the names of a new Hamilton Police Services board appointee, and a former city employee with ties to a neo-Nazi organization.

The report from Principles Integrity recommended council reprimand or unseat Kroetsch, who councillors appointed to the council advisory committee in 2018. It also said Kroetsch used his title while criticizing council on the radio.

Councillors weren't concerned with the second point, but they were with the first one. Both names were already widely circulated in the media, but lawyer Jeffrey Abrams from Principles Integrity told councillors that doesn't matter.

"It is our statutory legislative obligation of council to protect the privacy of individuals," said Coun. Brad Clark (Ward 9, upper Stoney Creek). "We've had a breach of that here." By voting against a reprimand, "we're saying it's OK, we'll look the other way."

Two councillors, Chad Collins (Ward 5, Centennial) and Tom Jackson (ward 6, east Mountain), voted against the reprimand. Collins said after the vote that the report itself amounted to a reprimand, and he's ready to move on and not give the issue any more attention.

"The findings themselves were ample enough in terms of highlighting the issues that were at hand," he said. "For me, spending two and a half hours on this is a complete waste of time, energy and resources."

Confusion around a tweet

Kroetsch said the whole probe is confusing. He points to what he says is the tweet in question, which doesn't name anyone. A screen shot in the Principles Integrity report doesn't show the entire tweet either.

Kroetsch also pointed to a link to the unredacted motion on the city's website.

Local lawyer Wade Poziomka, who represented Kroetsch in the process, said he's not aware of a tweet with sensitive information either. Abrams also told council that he tried to reach a resolution with Kroetsch. Poziomka said he and Kroetsch met with Abrams once, got a draft report, provided 100 more pages of information and never heard from Abrams again.

Kroetsch and Poziomka also questioned why Principles Integrity seemed to move faster on his complaint while more than a dozen are outstanding against council.

"The important thing is that Cameron Kroetsch was vocal on an issue that's important to the community, and he criticized sitting members of council," Poziomka said. "Council brought this complaint and it was treated differently."

Allowed to be critical of council

Several councillors agreed that they didn't want Kroetsch reprimanded for criticizing council. People criticize the city "every day on the radio," said Jason Farr (Ward 2, downtown).

Nrinder Nann (Ward 3, central lower city) said to equity-seeking communities, dissent is advice. And Maureen Wilson (Ward 1, west end) said trying to parse what is advocacy and what is advice speaks to "a systemic wrong of privilege."

Mayor Fred Eisenberger issued a statement after the meeting saying the finding highlights that advisory committees are subject to the same rules as council under the Municipal Act.

"Our volunteer advisory committees are critical voices to have within our organization and our community," he said. "Hamilton is stronger when community members feel empowered to share their voices, their advocacy and ideas.

"Representing our city also means we each have a Code of Conduct to adhere to. I look forward to continuing to hear from our committees as we collectively strive to continuing to build a city we can all be proud of."

Tension over flag raising

Last year was a heated one between city council and its LGBTQ advisory committee. 

The committee passed a motion last spring asking the city to cancel its Pride flag raising ceremony over a number of issues. The city few the flag anyway, but without the ceremony.

Kroetsch, as an individual and through his former volunteer role with Pride Hamilton, also criticized police response to violence at a 2019 Pride festival. Kroetsch also criticized the mayor for bypassing the advisory committee and enlisting two LGBTQ residents to act as advisors in the festival's aftermath.

Kroetsch also appeared in an NDP campaign video for now-Hamilton Centre MP Matthew Green, where he identified himself as chair of the advisory committee, although the report says this didn't violate the same code of conduct it cited for advisory committees.

How they voted

In favour of the reprimand

Mayor Fred Eisenberger, Maureen Wilson (Ward 1), Jason Farr (2), Nrinder Nann (3), John-Paul Danko (8), Brad Clark (9), Maria Pearson (10), Brenda Johnson (11), Lloyd Ferguson (12), Arlene VanderBeek (13), Terry Whitehead (14), Judi Partridge (15).

Opposed

Chad Collins (5), Tom Jackson (6).

Abstained

Esther Pauls (7). (Pauls declares a conflict of interest on all matters dealing with police.)

Absent

Sam Merulla (4).