Nanaimo city councillor Tyler Brown is speaking out after being on the receiving end of threats at a recent city council meeting. Photo: Tyler Brown / Facebook.

Nanaimo city councillor Tyler Brown said he was personally threatened at a city council meeting on Monday, February 5.

“I think what he was saying was we'd end up in a gas chamber,” Brown told CHLY. “Then, as another gentleman was leaving, I happened to just be getting up from my seat, and he basically just looked at me right in the face and said, ‘Watch your back Brown’.”

During the sometimes raucous meeting, which was attended by dozens of people opposed to the city taking out a loan to build a new public works yard through an Alternative Approval Process (AAP), Nanaimo Mayor Leonard Krog said that if members of the public didn’t behave he would clear the council chambers.

“I would be hesitant to have to do it, and I would be extremely disappointed to have to do it, but I will clear the chamber if necessary,” he said in response to heckling from the public gallery.

It is not known if the people Brown said made the threats were at the meeting to express opposition to the AAP.

This wasn’t the first time Brown has been threatened. Three years ago, he said a note was left on his front door after he was cycling in a bike lane with one of his kids near his house.

“A few days later, there was a note on my door that said: ‘Next time I see you and your boys in the bike lane, I should just run you over.’ It was a specific location, at my house, identifying my children,” said Brown, who did not report the incident to police.

“I probably should have, I didn't at the time,” he said. “I was advised to but I just tried to say, ‘Okay, I think it was something just designed to rattle me, I'm not sure the seriousness of it.’ Whether that was the right call or not? I don't know.”

Brown isn’t the only politician who has been threatened recently. On February 8, Premier David Eby said that Coquitlam-Maillardville MLA Selina Robinson received a death threat and that police were investigating.

In June, Victoria city councillor Jeremy Caradonna said he received death threats against himself, his wife and two daughters.

Also in June, The City of Langford put a new social media policy in place after thinly veiled death threats against councillors were made online.

Dr. Stanislav Vysotsky, an associate professor of criminology & criminal justice at the University of the Fraser Valley, said these are not just isolated incidents.

“It's not simply something that's happening in Nanaimo,” he said. ‘You're seeing this frequently at city council meetings, and town council meetings, and local events where people will come and they will make the kinds of statements that were heard in your city council meeting where they are making threats of violence, accusing people of somehow being in league with a conspiracy, and that they need to be punished in some way.”

Vysotsky said that threats should be taken seriously as violent rhetoric can sometimes lead to acts of political violence.

“Being aware of and understanding the potential security risks of people who are involved in these kinds of rhetoric and being aware that they may simply be blowing off steam sometimes but sometimes they could escalate,” he said. “So it's important to keep track of people who are engaging in violent far-right conspiratorial language.”

Brown said he is speaking out now because he’s worried that the threats will discourage people from participating in the political process.

“This is probably the most I've ever talked about it,” he said. “I don't know why, maybe just because I think at some point, we’ve got to step back and ask ourselves what kind of society are we building together and what are the values that we want to uphold?”

Brown said that threats against politicians are keeping people who want to run for public office from putting their name forward.

“The overarching principle that we all have to believe in is that everyone is deserving to enter public office, and everyone is deserving to engage with democratic institutions without fear of intimidation or bullying,” he said.

He is also worried that a hostile atmosphere could deter local residents from voicing their opinions at city council meetings.

“If someone comes into those council chambers with the jeering and the clapping, what happens if they want to speak up and say something different?” he said. “Would they feel comfortable as a member of the public? Probably not. It’s easier to sit there in silence and not go through the trouble.”

Funding Note: This story was produced with funding support from the Local Journalism Initiative, administered by the Community Radio Fund of Canada.