Whitby’s mayor said she will examine security measures at council chambers as Durham police investigate an incident that happened after a meeting on Monday evening.
Mayor Elizabeth Roy said a man inappropriately approached a female councilor at Whitby Town Hall after a council meeting ended at 11 p.m. She said the man approached the councillor in an aggressive manner that restricted her movement.
“We have a responsibility to ensure that public service is safe for everyone, and that includes calling out and condemning behaviour that seeks to silence or discourage women from participating in civic life,” the mayor said in a statement on Tuesday.
After the incident, Roy told CBC News some female councillors have approached her, “asking for how they can be better supported.”
She said the council’s security is doing a full review of the incident.
“Our council chambers need to be a safe place,” Roy said.
“We always need to be taking a look at the security measures that are in place, to give the support for everybody to feel that way.”
Roy identified the man as David Menzies, an employee of right-wing media outlet Rebel News. Victoria Bozinkovski, who represents East Ward (4), confirmed she was the councilor involved.
Bozinkovski declined an interview, citing the police investigation, but provided a short statement via text message.
“The interaction was not journalism. It was threatening, harassment and physical,” Bozinkovski said.
Menzies denied harassing Bozinkovski in a video posted on the outlet’s social media on Tuesday.
CBC News reached out to Menzies and Rebel News for comment on Tuesday.
Durham police spokesperson Kristie Jones confirmed officers responded to a disturbance call at Whitby Town Hall around 11:30 p.m. on Monday.
“Officers spoke with a male and escorted him from the building,” she said in an email. “He was not arrested and no charges have been laid at this time.”
Following the incident, some councillors were escorted out of town hall by security, the mayor said.
Councillor Maleeha Shahid didn’t see the incident, but said she was with her colleague afterwards and saw “how upset” she was following the interaction.
Shahid said security told her Rebel News was still in the town hall parking lot after the incident happened. She said the outlet remained there until past 11:30 p.m.
She said she only left the council chambers once police arrived on scene, and she requested that security watch her go to her car, as she was worried she would be followed.
The mayor said several media outlets attended Monday’s meeting. She said security was aware of everyone who was in the building, though they only intervened after the incident happened.
“You don’t approach an individual aggressively, assertively and into their physical space,” Roy said.
Security also called the police, a spokesperson for the town confirmed.
Whitby is the latest city council in Durham Region to deal with security concerns.
Last year, Pickering Mayor Kevin Ashe decided to move all city council meetings online, citing ongoing security threats posed by supporters of Coun. Lisa Robinson.
Whitby’s mayor said she is not planning to move council meetings online.
She also called Monday’s incident “targeted,” and said there’s no connection to events in Pickering.
Regional Coun. Rhonda Mulcahy noted Whitby has a female-majority council, which she said is not common. She said it’s critical that women feel safe going to work.
Meanwhile, Shahid said the media “is always welcome [to council meetings], but intimidation of female councillors or any councillors is not welcome.”
Both Sahid and Mulcahy said they are concerned Monday’s incident may deter women from running for municipal office in the future.
Menzies spoke about the incident in a video on the outlet’s YouTube channel on Tuesday, which includes a clip showing part of his interaction with Bozinkovski.
In the clip, Menzies is speaking at a normal volume when he approaches the councillor with a microphone. He asks Bozinkovski a question as he follows her out of the town hall building and towards a parking lot. When she goes back into the building, Menzies follows her inside, and a security guard asks him to leave three times.
The video includes a section filmed on Tuesday, where Menzies responds to a statement Roy released about the incident. He said he was not harassing Bozinkovski but was “simply scrumming a publicly elected official who should be held accountable to the public.”
A media scrum involving politicians is an informal press conference that’s typically held immediately outside or after an event. Scrums are often pre-arranged by political staff and journalists.
Menzies made headlines in Jan. 2024 after he was arrested by an RCMP officer while trying to question then-finance minister Chrystia Freeland outside an event in Richmond Hill. Rebel News initiated a lawsuit against the RCMP about the incident two months later. The status of the lawsuit is not clear.
Menzies’ question to Bozinovski on Monday night misstated comments she made earlier this month regarding a dropped motion put forward by another councillor.
In February, Coun. Chris Leahy moved a motion that asked staff to investigate whether the town’s procurement policy could be amended to ban companies participating in the federal temporary foreign workers program from being granted supply and service contracts.
The mayor ruled the motion out of order during a committee of the whole meeting on Feb. 23, after receiving legal advice that found Whitby would be exposed to litigation if it made those amendments. During that meeting, she also said that the motion falls outside the scope of municipal governance.
The legal analysis by Lerner LLP, which council made publicly accessible, found in part that such an amendment could “likely” be found to breach the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms and would be considered discriminatory under the Ontario Human Rights Code.
At a council meeting on March 9, Bozinovski — who requested the legal analysis — said “the motion that was put forward was absolute garbage.”
“It was offensive, it was xenophobic,” she said.
CBC News asked Bozinovski to elaborate on her comments. In response, she pointed to a lengthy post she made on X on Wednesday, where she says she stands by her language.
“When a proposal effectively seeks to exclude legally authorized workers based on citizenship or origin, it crosses a line,” she wrote in the social media post.
In the Rebel News clip, Menzies asks Bozinovski “why it is if someone questions the temporary foreign worker program, they’re racist and garbage?”
As he follows her outside, a security guard steps between them, stretches out an arm and tells Menzies he’s “just making sure you don’t bother the lady.”
In response, Menzies says, “I’m scrumming her please.”
Bozinovski then turns around and walks back inside town hall.
The guard tells Menzies he was “impeding [the councillor’s] access to her car.” Menzies again repeats that he was scrumming Bozinovski, and then follows her back into the council building.
The guard, who identifies himself as the security supervisor for the town of Whitby, follows Menzies inside and repeatedly asks him to leave.
“You’re chasing her, she said she doesn’t want to talk to you,” the guard says.
The clip doesn’t include footage of police on scene, and it doesn’t show Menzies leaving the building.
