Woman files complaint over councillor’s BLM post
A Winchester woman has lodged a formal complaint with the Township of North Dundas after a councillor called the Black Lives Matter movement “a terrorist group” on a community Facebook page.
Coun. Tyler Hoy was commenting on a post on the What’s Up Winchester Facebook group that tackled the issue of racism in the community.
“All lives matter. BLM is a terrorist group,” Hoy wrote.
Chris Clapp, a white social worker and consultant, was one of several people to call out Hoy’s remark. The councillor countered by writing, “I will not back down from terrorists.”
Clapp wrote to the mayor and deputy mayor, then lodged her formal complaint “so it wouldn’t get swept under the rug.”
“I’m a white person and I have a lot of privilege, but we need to use our voices when we can and not just be bystanders when we see things like this happen,” Clapp said Wednesday.
“I think a lot of us were very disturbed by Tyler’s comments and thought that we have to be an intentional part of the solution because otherwise we’re complicit.”
Clapp said the township council has been silent on the issue of racism, even as other councils and governments in Canada and around the world acknowledge systemic racism in the wake of protests by the Black Lives Matter movement. She wants the township to commit to diversity training for its councillors and employees.
“There’s not a lot of diversity there,” she said. “I don’t want to throw Tyler under the bus because our council is all white men. There’s been a notable absence on the whole issue of racism awareness and Black Lives Matter in the past few months. Council has not said anything.
“Tyler put himself out there to say things that are untrue — ‘BLM is a terrorist group’, which is untrue — and then by going with the age-old “all lives matter,” which many of us are really fatigued by at this point.”
Hoy refused to comment when reached by this newspaper on Wednesday — “I’m not going to talk about,” he said — but North Dundas Mayor Tony Fraser said he was “disappointed” by Hoy’s remarks. Fraser said he has not spoken to Hoy since the controversy erupted.
“I’m shocked that someone I know would make a comment like that,” Fraser said. “Those are most definitely not my views. It’s not appropriate. It’s not acceptable.”
He promised action, but hedged on whether he and his council needed diversity training.
“I don’t think I’ve ever demonstrated that I’m in need of such a thing. I understand they want to see better out of everyone, but to paint me and the rest of my council with that brush is unfair. I don’t talk like that. I don’t make comments like that.”
North Dundas is not the only municipality that finds itself mired in the issue of racism and historical wrongs. Earlier this spring, a former Russell resident started a petition to have the township change its name because its 18th Century namesake, Peter Russell, was a slave owner who tried to delay abolition.
In Cornwall, Mayor Bernadette Clement, a Black woman, has led that city’s response to the Black Lives Matter movement.
“As a Black woman and as the Mayor, it’s incredibly important to me that we deepen this conversation,” Clement told the website Nation Valley News in July. “The Black Lives Matter movement has had a profound impact.”
Thomas Sproule, the Thai man who was the target of a racial slur and whose post prompted the discussion on the What’s Up Winchester Facebook group, said he, too, was upset to see Hoy’s comments. Racism wasn’t something he even thought about when he moved to Winchester from Ottawa two months ago. “To have someone in that position be like that is really shocking to me,” Sproule said.
North Dundas has 30 days to respond to Clapp’s complaint. Its next council meeting is Sept. 8. bcrawford@postmedia.com