Dear Mayor and Council,

I am writing to place on record my objection to the Mayor characterizing my Public Forum comments as campaigning.

I attended as an Owen Sound resident and commented on a municipal programme before Council. I identified myself only by name and municipality. My remarks contained no reference to my candidacy, campaign, website, platform, election, or request for electoral support.

My increased participation in Council meetings began through my civic transparency work with HelpOS.ca. I review and summarize municipal agendas so residents can understand what is coming before Council. This work gives me the information needed to offer useful suggestions based on agenda materials, discussion during the meeting, and public discourse over the preceding two weeks.

I have also participated in civic advocacy for many years through emails and direct conversations with elected officials. Years ago, Mayor Ian Boddy told me that the volume of information I was providing was too much for him and that he no longer wished to receive it. I have no way of knowing whether my later emails were filtered or simply disregarded, but my recent Public Forum appearances may have been the first time in some years that he became aware of the substance of my advocacy.

That experience demonstrates why Public Forum matters. Without a direct and public opportunity to address Council, potentially beneficial policy suggestions may never reach Council members or receive meaningful consideration.

My candidacy is, at most, circumstantial to my participation. I conduct many genuine campaign activities outside City Hall, none of which rely upon Council chambers or Public Forum. When my research identifies a practical way to improve a municipal policy or programme, withholding that information solely because I am also a candidate would be irresponsible and contrary to meaningful public participation.

My comments are generally well below the allotted three minutes and comply with the rules concerning identification, relevance, repetition, and conduct. The Procedural By-law allows a person to comment on any matter during Public Forum. I am unaware of any provision that removes that opportunity once a resident becomes a registered candidate or classifies an ordinary policy suggestion as campaigning.

The only reference to my candidacy came from the Mayor. Of the few viewers who watch these meetings they may have been unaware of my candidate status until he chose to identify me in that capacity. His intervention created the electoral association that was absent from my remarks and gave me electoral exposure that I neither requested nor introduced.

Candidate status should never remove a resident’s ability to participate in municipal governance. The same standard must apply equally to every registered candidate, including sitting members of Council seeking re-election.

I ask that the Mayor and Council cease characterizing my policy comments as campaigning where those remarks contain no electoral appeal, campaign promotion, or request for votes. I will continue participating in Public Forum as an Owen Sound resident, subject to the same procedural rules that apply to everyone else.

I have already provided the Clerk with substantial case law addressing the relevant legal principles. Council may review that material with its legal counsel, and I remain prepared to provide further authorities where useful.

I offer these comments in the hope of strengthening respectful public participation rather than creating further conflict. As Q’uo of the Confederation observed:

“We would say that from our point of view there has been strides made towards harmony, towards integration, and that for us, there is beauty discernable. We will grant that not all have come to the point where this tone poem of the social complex can be appreciated to the point that a conscious participation has become thinkable. Nevertheless, those who do not participate consciously, do participate, each in a way it is unique, and each in a way that brings to the overall poem, a beauty. The creation itself is an event which unfolds with a level of nuance and articulation that is staggering in its immensity, [such that] the immensity itself can be a source of awe. For us, we would say that a source of even greater awe is the degree to which it is possible for those within this great immensity to represent at once a uniquely creative relation to the vastness of the creation, and an appreciation of all of the voices that come within earshot at any one time.”

My reason for participating is to be of greatest service to all creation in all that I do. My participation in Public Forum is an expression of that commitment. I offer my research and policy suggestions in the hope that they may help Council make wiser decisions and improve life in our shared city.

In the spirit of the Confederation’s words, my intention is to contribute one sincere voice while respecting and appreciating all the other voices within our community.

May you be well,

With love and love,

Andrii Zvorygin Owen Sound Grey County Canada