Opinion
City Council decides to keep investigation into one of it’s own a secret
When governments have to release information they really don’t want the public to know about, they’ll release it late Friday afternoon. That’s the one time in the week virtually no one is paying attention to the “news cycle”. In fact, a Friday before a long weekend is as close to a perfect time to bury some information as you can get. Reporters are people too. They’ve got long weekend plans and they’re trying to get done early like everyone else. Reporters are just as anxious as the average person to get home and desperately finish packing so they can rush out and pay more more to gas up (long weekend price hike coincidence/tradition). More likely in these days of covid they’re just rushing home to fill up a glass (also more expensive but worth it at virtually any price, right?).
That’s why it was so interesting to see this news release from Red Deer City Council on Friday afternoon at 4:09. It was actually posted to the city website at 4:05, so now I now it takes about 4 minutes for an email to get to me (It’s those fun little details that make the world go round eh?).
Actually I didn’t see it at 4:09 because like most people I don’t sit still in the afternoon watching my inbox to react immediately to every email. Maybe I should. Instead I typically check my email periodically, and typically that happens far less regularly late Friday afternoon.. especially on the Friday of a long weekend.. especially this particular Friday. Instead of seeing this at 4:09 I was rushing from a quick trip to Calgary to pick up our oldest boy (U of C student) and I was transitioning to hockey coach, going over some U13 drills on the Hockey Canada website to prepare for our late afternoon U13B West Country hockey practice. (The kids were awesome by the way). Then it was a meeting with team parents. Then it was home to late supper. Then it was movie night with our two boys. Then to bed without even checking email and phone messages.
Just as they hoped (in my own humble opinion) I and many others didn’t see this email right away. Now that I have seen it, I’m in quite a conundrum. It’s a long weekend and I have plans to continue painting trim on our house. I also plan to continue safe social distancing practices by staying away from loved ones for the second Thanksgiving in a row. While painting I’ll also wonder why our governments and doctors aren’t aggressively pushing for early treatment so we can relieve pressure on our hospitals and save some lives and stop living in fear.. but I digress.
Saturday morning I started the typical upkeep of Todayville.com and periodically checked email messages. Then I came across this beauty sent Friday afternoon at 4:09. In case you haven’t seen it yet, here it is….
News Release from the City of Red Deer
Second Code of Conduct investigation closes
(Red Deer, Alberta) – An investigation stemming from a code of conduct complaint received by City Council on May 7, 2021, has closed, and a majority of Council did not accept the investigation report at yesterday’s Council meeting. The investigation is considered complete and will remain confidential under the Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act (FOIP).
“City Council’s Code of Conduct bylaw is a set of expectations for Council member’s conduct and behaviour. This is the second of two Code of Conduct complaints that were investigated in 2021,” said Deputy Mayor Lawrence Lee.
All municipalities in Alberta are required by the Municipal Government Act (MGA) to have a Code of Conduct Bylaw that sets shared expectations for conduct or behaviour. The bylaw outlines how members should conduct themselves while carrying out their responsibilities and establishes a review and investigation process when a complaint is received. The City of Red Deer passed its Code of Conduct Bylaw (2608-2018) on July 23, 2018.
After a review committee of three Council members initially reviewed the complaint, there was a majority vote to proceed to formal investigation. An investigator was hired to investigate and report back to City Council, and City Council had three meetings on this issue.
“Upholding City Council’s Code of Conduct, procedural fairness, relationships and role clarity are essential as we work to ensure good governance that is in the best interest of the organization and our community,” said Deputy Mayor Lawrence Lee.
Council passed a second resolution directing the confidential report be shared with the City Manager to prepare a confidential memorandum outlining “lessons learned” to be brought back to Council in the first quarter of 2022. The memorandum should make recommendations on the integration and relationships of the Mayor and Council’s office with administration. Through the City Manager, the staff and council will work together to move forward.
For more information about City Council’s Code of Conduct Bylaw, visit www.reddeer.ca
So what does all this mean? Well we know there was an investigation into the conduct of at least one member of city council. We know three councillors reviewed this complaint. Then the majority of council decided we (taxpayers) should pay an investigator to look into this complaint. (That doesn’t sound cheap). We know council met three times to discuss this complaint. Then the report came back and the majority of Red Deer City Council did not accept the investigator’s report that we (taxpayers) paid for. And.. we know the investigation is considered complete and that it will “remain confidential” until someone pays for and goes through the process of applying for a Freedom of Information Request.
WE also know this might be the last time this council will meet before the 2021 Municipal Election. What a brutal meeting to have hanging over your head as you gun for re-election! Makes me feel horrible for all those candidates I know (and in some cases REALLY like) who have to face the electorate in a few days. Kind of makes me SUPER curious about the contents of this second investigation. Seems like precisely the kind of information I’d like to have before I decide who to vote for in a few days. But as is happening so much these days, our elected officials are saving us from the details and we should rest easy knowing that they have our best interests in mind (you know, before their own).
So we’ll have to imagine how Thursday’s “in-camera” conversation went (and thousands of voters will be doing just that). I guess someone must have said something like “I know this seemed like a big deal back in the spring. I know we talked about it in three separate meetings and that three of us reviewed it and we all decided we should hire an investigator to look into this. Buuuuuuut. That was such a long time ago. Now it’s fall and with an election just days away, frankly we’ve got better things to worry about.” To which the majority of council must have said something like “You know. You’re right! I don’t know what we were thinking back there in the spring. The truth is there’s nothing to see here. Why don’t we prove it by telling the people who pay us absolutely nothing about why we spent our time and their money investigating a complaint that three of us reviewed in the spring and the majority of us voted to proceed to formal investigation.” Then I guess someone called for a vote. When only Buck Buchanan and Dianne Wyntjes disagreed, (as reported here in this really interesting opinion piece/video by 2017 Council candidate Calvin Goulet-Jones) those seeking reelection all took off to presumably check on their election signs.
Actually this being the “Second” Code of Conduct investigation, it reminds me there was a “First” Code of Conduct investigation back in April. Although that investigation started 1 month before this one, it actually wrapped up more than two months ago. Investigation #1 resulted in Councillor Buck Buchanan facing some embarrassing disciplinary measures. Remember that? That news release was also released late in the afternoon, but NOT late Friday afternoon. The news release regarding investigation number 1 was released at 4:59 Monday, July 26. Media types know this means it’s going to be all the rage come Tuesday morning and will have lots of time to build up for the rest of the week. Here’s what that looked like (in case you’re keeping score of the Council Code of Conduct investigations at home)….
News Release from the City of Red Deer
Code of Conduct investigation closes with sanctions for Councillor Buchanan
After a review committee of three Council members initially reviewed the complaint, and by majority vote determined that it should proceed to formal investigation, SAGE Analytics Inc. was hired to investigate and report back to City Council.
SAGE is a municipal consulting firm with expertise in governance evaluation, dispute resolution, and council code of conduct complaint investigations. SAGE utilized a process that included interviews and follow-up with both parties, witness interviews, a review of related correspondence received by The City, document review, analysis and report writing.
With the investigation complete, the findings conclude that Councillor Buchanan breached three sections in the Council Code of Conduct Bylaw:
- 7.1, which states “members shall uphold the law established by the Parliament of Canada and the Legislature of Alberta and the bylaws, policies and procedures adopted by Council.”
- 7.2, which states “members shall respect the Municipality as an institution, its bylaws, policies and procedures and shall encourage public respect for the Municipality, its bylaws, policies and procedures” and
- 4.1(d), which states, City Council must “arrange their private affairs and conduct themselves in a manner that promotes public confidence.”
According to the findings, a social media post made by Councillor Buchanan in January 2021, combined with his prior actions, amounted to a breach of the bylaw. SAGE determined these actions were disrespectful to the local pandemic response efforts and increased a division in the community between individuals in favour of and opposed to health restrictions. SAGE’s report finds that through Councillor Buchanan’s actions, The City’s reputation was damaged, and The City’s pandemic response efforts were negatively impacted. They also determined he demonstrated a pattern of conduct where he made negative comments that did not promote public confidence in The City’s pandemic response efforts.
Having accepted that Councillor Buchanan contravened three sections of the Bylaw, Council considered the sanctions recommended by SAGE and ultimately resolved by majority vote to require that Councillor Buchanan:
- Issue a public apology to Red Deer residents, businesses, staff, and Council for his actions and social media post on January 27, 2021, which caused increased confusion and division in the community during a time of crisis; and that this apology be provided to the satisfaction of Council, during a public portion of a Council meeting.
- Arrange an in-person meeting with the AHS Central Zone Medical Director, or designate to offer a personal apology to Alberta Health Services for any harm caused by his public comments during the pandemic response.
- Be suspended from all Council committees and all Deputy Mayor rotation duties until sincere apologies are provided.
- Complete social media training hired and paid for by The City of Red Deer that aligns with typical media training for City staff.
The investigation is considered complete. Councillor Buchanan continues to serve as Red Deer City Councillor.
This is the first formal Code of Conduct complaint received by The City of Red Deer.
So we have two Code of Conduct investigations against this council. The first looks kind of like an expensive slap on the wrist to Buch Buchanan for daring to ask on Twitter whether AHS had shown up at a restaurant in Sylvan Lake that was protesting covid restrictions. (The Horror). The second complaint? Well it looked like a bigger deal back in the spring.
Just before I let you go back to Turkey prep and avoiding your loved ones I’d like to offer some free advice to the members of City Council who voted to keep the details of investigation number two from the people who pay for everything they do and for their salaries (as insufficient as they may seem to those who have to cash the cheques). I admit this has to be free because in all likelihood no one in their right mind would pay for it. However I’m avoiding the paint brush for just a few more minutes. Here goes: I really think it might be a good idea to tell voters who was investigated and why. That’s it. The problem with keeping this quiet is that it will tarnish not just the unfortunate soul(s) who was investigated. Now all of you who voted this way will be part of that same embarrassment and presumably you could pay the price for this.
Yes 31 percent of the 60 percent of Canadians who vote, continually vote for Justin Trudeau no matter what aboriginal female minister he turfs for daring to question his friends at Canada’s most notorious construction firm, or how many times he wears black face or how many times he declares a holiday to recognize one of the most serious problems in Canada and then forgets he might be the most important person to appear at events on that day and accidentally takes his family on a private jet to an 18 million dollar hideaway (and then forgot to hide very well). No matter what, some elected officials will have a blind following. But you are definitely taking at least a small risk here. Some people are paying attention (hi Calvin). And some people talk to other people. And some of those people will be voting. And some people will jump to the conclusion that you voted to keep this quiet because you care about something else, anything else, more than you care about the voters who you are undoubtedly shaking hands with at the farmers market right now while you tell them that nothing is more important to you than they are. But something is more important. You should tell us.
Sorry for rambling. I’ve completely run out of things to say. If you want to run a beer over to our place to reward me for doing a second rate painting job.. just keep your distance. I’ve got a valid negative covid rapid test that has to last until I get another one and another one before my vaccine kicks in.
Celebrations broke out across South Florida Saturday as news spread that Venezuela’s longtime socialist strongman Nicolás Maduro had been captured and removed from power, a moment many Venezuelan exiles said they had waited their entire lives to see. In Doral, hundreds gathered outside the El Arepazo restaurant before sunrise, waving flags, embracing strangers, and reacting emotionally to what they described as a turning point for their homeland. Local television footage captured chants, tears, and spontaneous celebrations as word filtered through the community that Maduro and his wife had been “captured and flown out of the country” following U.S. military action announced by Donald Trump earlier that morning.
Venezuelans gathered early this morning in Doral to celebrate after news broke that the U.S. had captured Nicolás Maduro🇻🇪| #ONLYinDADE pic.twitter.com/mSNaF3IhR3
— ONLY in DADE (@ONLYinDADE) January 3, 2026
One young man, Edgar, spoke directly to reporters as the crowd surged behind him, calling the moment “history in the making.” He said his family had spent decades telling him stories about a Venezuela that once had real elections and basic freedoms. “My chest feels like it’s going to explode with joy,” he said, explaining that the struggle against the regime began long before he was born. Edgar thanked President Trump for allowing Venezuelans to work and rebuild their lives in the United States, adding that now, for the first time, he believed they could take those skills back home.
Similar scenes played out beyond Florida. Video circulating online showed Venezuelans celebrating in Chile and other parts of Latin America, reflecting the regional impact of Maduro’s fall. The dictator had clung to power through what U.S. officials and international observers have long described as sham elections, while presiding over economic collapse, mass emigration, and deepening ties to transnational criminal networks. U.S. authorities have pursued him for years, placing a $50 million bounty on information leading to his arrest or conviction. Federal prosecutors accused Maduro in 2020 of being a central figure in the so-called Cartel of the Suns, an international cocaine trafficking operation allegedly run by senior members of the Venezuelan regime and aimed, in prosecutors’ words, at flooding the United States with drugs.
After the overnight strikes, Venezuela’s remaining regime figures declared a state of emergency, even as images of celebration dominated social media abroad. In Washington, reaction from Florida lawmakers was swift. Rep. Carlos Gimenez, who represents a district with large Venezuelan, Cuban, and Nicaraguan exile communities, compared Maduro’s capture to one of the defining moments of the 20th century. “President Trump has changed the course of history in our hemisphere,” Gimenez wrote, calling the operation “this hemisphere’s equivalent to the Fall of the Berlin Wall.” He added that South Florida’s exile communities were “overwhelmed with emotion and hope,” and thanked U.S. service members for what he described as a decisive and successful mission.
For many gathered in Doral, the reaction was deeply personal. A CBS Miami reporter relayed comments from attendees who said they now felt safer about the possibility of returning to Venezuela to see family members they had not hugged in years. One man described it as the end of “26 years of waiting” for a free country, saying the moment felt less like politics and more like the closing of a long, painful chapter.
U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi confirmed Saturday that Maduro and his wife have been formally indicted in the Southern District of New York. Bondi said the charges include narco-terrorism conspiracy, cocaine importation conspiracy, and weapons offenses involving machine guns and destructive devices. For Venezuelan Americans packed into South Florida streets, those legal details mattered less than the symbolism. After years of watching their country unravel from afar, many said they finally felt something unfamiliar when they looked south — relief, and the cautious hope that Venezuela’s future might no longer be written by a dictator.
Opinion
Hell freezes over, CTV’s fabrication of fake news and our 2026 forecast is still searching for sunshine
Plus! Politico warns that the far right’s stealing Christmas, a CBC content analysis ruffles feathers and more! Happy New Year
Last week, according to the people who produce the nation’s most popular newscast, the hell that is Gaza froze over.
That’s right. According to CTV News, “freezing” rain flooded Gaza camps, leaving “displaced Palestinians in dire conditions.” This, as was pointed out by social media critics (including the National Post’s Chris Selley) was an absolutely false statement. It was, to be clear, a lie.
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Winter rains had indeed fallen and made life unpleasant for people in Gaza. But the Associated Press (AP) report for which some eager beaver wrote the headline (one is tempted to suspect either a social justice warrior posing as a journalist or a bumbling incompetent produced by J-school) made no mention of anything “freezing.” Of course it didn’t, because on the day the story was published the high temperature in Gaza was 17C with a low of 13C.
Now, as one who has visited Disneyland in January, I am aware that temperatures can be relative. When it’s 14C in southern California, people from Saskatoon and Winnipeg are jumping into the local hotel pools while “cast members” at Disneyland are wearing toques and mittens. So AP was entirely within its rights to refer to conditions as chilly.
CTV Evening News, historically, has been one of Canada’s most watched regularly scheduled programs. It has boasted in the past about being the nation’s “most trusted” newscast.
So it was bad enough that CTV posted a barefaced falsehood. What was worse, although it did soften its internal headline to refer to “winter” rains, was that it did not take down its “freezing” posts or offer any hint of regret – at least none I could find – that it had ever posted information that amounted to the antithesis of journalism’s first obligation – The Truth.
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While CTV’s owner, Bell, continues to lobby for its newsrooms to qualify for government subsidies such as the Journalism Labour Tax Credit and campaign in Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) hearings for newsroom funding, it does not appear super interested in investing in good journalism or even maintaining public trust in it.
Which is a shame, because last week its presentation of fake news did significant harm to trust in the craft and was inconsistent with its published standards.
Peter Stockland did a fine job the other day in addressing the fuss raised in media concerning CBS editor-in-chief Bari Weiss’s decision to pull back a story regarding US deportees because, she said, it wasn’t complete enough for airing on 60 Minutes. Others viewed it more suspiciously.
If you haven’t read it yet, please do. We’ll see how it all turns out but what caught my eye was the manner in which the Globe and Mail’s U.S. correspondent, Adrian Morrow, chose to describe Weiss. He portrayed her only as “an anti-woke media personality” – a term of which his editors apparently approved. Given that Weiss was the Opinion Editor of the Wall Street Journal and then the New York Times, this seems a little, shall we say, catty? A childishly nasty manner in which to refer to Weiss, I thought, considering she also launched an online publication – The Free Press – that, because she was good at being an editor, used talented journalists and paid them well, recently sold to Paramount Skydance for more than $200 million.
Most of all, though, I found the reference entirely unnecessary and self-indulgent, as if the piece was written for the approval of peers and not for the benefit of readers.
Unsubstantiated references to the “far right” continue to be in prolific use as we begin a New Year, still searching for reasons to be optimistic about the state of journalism. References to the “far left,” meanwhile, continue to defy Newton’s Third Law of Motion concerning equal and opposite actions.
The European edition of Politico used no less an occasion that the birth of the previous millenium’s most influential figure to weigh in with its report on “How the far right stole Christmas.”
“U.S. President Donald Trump claims to have “brought back” the phrase “Merry Christmas” in the United States,” Politico declared, “framing it as defiance against political correctness. Now, European far-right parties more usually focused on immigration or law-and-order concerns have adopted similar language, recasting Christmas as the latest battleground in a broader struggle over culture.”
Whew. Politico, focusing on Italian leader Giorgia Meloni, went so far as to quote attendees at a Christmas celebration who wished to remain anonymous for fear of being associated with a “far right” event.
Me? I thought it was Karl Marx, father of the far left, who labeled religion the “opium of the masses” and a human creation designed to keep the working classes oppressed. And weren’t the Soviet Union, China, North Korea and other Communist states the ones that did and do their level best to “steal” Christmas and other festivities founded in faith? Times have clearly changed, even if some newsroom instincts have not.
Speaking of disconnected media, prolific numbers man David Clinton has ruffled a few feathers with an extensive analysis in his Substack platform, The Audit, of CBC content. Here’s his summary of what he found:
“Of the 300 stories covered by my data, around 30 per cent – month after month – focused on Donald Trump and U.S.- Canada relations. Another 12-15 percent related to Gaza and the Israel-Palestine conflict. Domestic politics – including election coverage – took up another 12 percent, Indigenous issues attracted 9 percent, climate and the environment grabbed 8 percent, and gender identity, health-care worker assaults, immigrant suffering, and crime attracted around 4 percent each.”
Clinton provides a list of topics that were not “meaningfully represented in my sample of CBC’s Top Stories.” It includes housing affordability, immigration levels, crime rate, private sector investment success stories, the oil and gas sector, Chinese interference, etc. You can read his full analysis here.
You can also look for my New Year’s predictions on media that (spoiler alert) states that seeing as there has been no evidence of reform in CBC President Marie-Philippe Bouchard’s first year at the helm of the Mother Corp, you can expect more of the same nothing in 2026. That piece is expected to appear in The Hub this week.
Western Standard announced before Christmas that it’s heading East and hiring a reporter to cover news emanating from Queen’s Park, Ontario’s provincial legislature.
The most notable media-on-media smackdown that came to my attention over the festive season goes to the reliably rambunctious Ezra Levant of Rebel News.
Seizing on a year-end column by the Globe and Mail’s Lawrence Martin that hailed 2025 “as one of Canada’s great nation-building years” under Prime Minister Mark Carney, Levant had this to say:
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And that, for this week, is that. Welcome to 2026.
(Peter Menzies is a commentator and consultant on media, Macdonald-Laurier Institute Senior Fellow, a past publisher of the Calgary Herald, a former vice chair of the CRTC and a National Newspaper Award winner.)
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