The City of Hamilton faces scrutiny from the Ontario Ombudsman for the deletion of a meeting recording on its YouTube page amidst an investigation regarding an alleged violation of open meeting rules by a sub-committee. Photo credit: City of Hamilton
The City of Hamilton received a stern letter from the Ontario Ombudsman after a meeting recording was deleted from the municipality’s YouTube page while the video was being investigated.
The Ontario Ombudsman is “an independent and impartial Officer of the Legislature who resolves complaints about government and public sector bodies.”
The Ombudsman, Paul Dubé, received a complaint alleging that the Agriculture and Rural Affairs Sub-Committee “failed to broadcast a livestream of its meeting on April 18, 2023 to the public.”
Failing to broadcast the sub-committee meeting is in violation of open meeting rules set in the Municipal Act, 2001.
In a letter issued by Dubé responding to the allegation, he wrote, “The complainant believes that the meeting may have been an ‘unlisted’ livestream on YouTube. An ‘unlisted’ livestream would not appear on the City’s general YouTube channel and is only visible to individuals who have a direct link.”
However, in the end, Dubé explained that he was “unable to conclude whether or not the meeting on April 18, 2023 was improperly closed to the public.”
He did note that this is the second complaint that he has received from the public in regards to the livestreaming of the sub-committee’s meetings.
Thus, Dubé advised, “I strongly encourage the City to carefully review its YouTube livestreaming process to ensure that all meeting livestreams are public.”
However, Dubé’s letter to Mayor Horwath and Council also detailed that, during his investigation, the meeting livestream was “permanently deleted by the City.”
Dubé notes that the City had provided his Office a link to the recording and while they were attempting to figure out if the livestream had originally been accessible to the public the video simply disappeared.
It appears that a staff member at the City was not informed that the Ombudsman was conducting a review and had deleted the recording “in accordance with the City’s records retention practices at the time.”
The incident prompted some stern words from the Ombudsman:
Regardless of a municipality’s records retention practices, when my Office notifies a municipality that an open meeting complaint has been received, the municipality must preserve evidence in its possession. As a practical matter, the municipality should inform the appropriate staff to retain any evidence, including recordings, that is relevant to my Office’s review. The preservation of evidence is not merely a procedural formality; it is an obligation.
In this case, there is no evidence that the recording was deleted with the intention to affect the outcome of my Office’s review. Nevertheless, the effect of the deletion was to frustrate my review.
The City should be mindful that it is an offence under the Ombudsman Act to wilfully mislead the Ombudsman or to obstruct an Ombudsman investigation.
Nevertheless, Dubé decided that his Office would not be taking any further steps regarding the complaint.
It also appears that the City will attempt to be more diligent in the future and will now be preserving the recordings of all sub-committee meetings.
Based in Hamilton, he reaches hundreds of thousands of people monthly on Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, and Twitter. He has been published in The Hamilton Spectator, Stoney Creek News, and Bay Observer. He has also been a segment host with Cable 14 Hamilton. In 2017, he received the Chancellor Full Tuition Scholarship from the University of Ottawa (BA, 2022). He has also received the Governor General’s Academic Medal. He formerly worked in a non-partisan role on Parliament Hill in Ottawa.
