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Guelph councillors' Twitter beef lands in council chambers

James Gordon threatens to file complaint with city's Integrity Commissioner if Dan Gibson didn't apologize. Which he did. Kind of.
20160201 Guelph City Hall Council Chambers KA

Guelph City Council almost made it through a meeting without some infighting Monday night. Almost.

As council wrapped up a two-hour planning session in council chambers and prepared to continue an earlier in-camera session behind closed doors, the mud started flying across the horseshoe again.

Ward 2 councillor James Gordon called a point of privilege to speak and announced that unless he got an apology from Ward 1 councillor Dan Gibson for "inflammatory, insulting language" Gibson used in criticizing Gordon on social media last Friday, he would be lodging a complaint with the city's Integrity Commissioner.

Gordon added that Gibson is a champion of saving money for the citizens of Guelph and that the cost of an investigation by the Integrity Commissioner would be on Gibson's hands if it went that far.

The beef stems from a Twitter exchange the two had during Mayor Cam Guthrie's State of the City speech to the Guelph Chamber of Commerce last Friday.

Gordon tweeted that he was at the speech "Waiting to hear about vision for our future."

Gibson felt it was jab at the Mayor and it escalated from there.

@Ward1Guelph dan- I sent that tweet before mayor started to speak. I was waiting for it to start! Sheesh!

Gordon said Monday in Council Chambers that Gibson had misunderstood the tweet, which was sent before the Mayor's speech started. It was not a criticism of the speech itself.

Gibson defended himself by saying that he felt Gordon's tweet was a continuation of a narrative criticizing the mayor that Gordon started on his blog months ago.

Gordon said he explained himself to Gibson but didn't get anywhere.

"Councillor Gibson's failure to acknowledge this misunderstanding ... leads me to wonder about his opinion of my integrity," Gordon said.

Gibson offered a somewhat backhanded apology. "I will apologize," he said.

"But I stand by my comments. If my timing is not pleasing to you, I apologize," Gibson said.

Gordon accepted the apology.

The Mayor, who had touted council unity in that same speech to the Guelph Chamber of Commerce, was not too pleased with the exchange.

"Everybody settle down please," Guthrie said at one point. "We need to rise above this ... let's do this out of the public realm, please."

Guthrie said the issue should have been settled over a coffee, which he would be happy to buy.

As the public meeting ended and councillors began gathering in groups around Gibson and Gordon, the Mayor said loudly "everybody in the back room, now!"


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Tony Saxon

About the Author: Tony Saxon

Tony Saxon has had a rich and varied 30 year career as a journalist, an award winning correspondent, columnist, reporter, feature writer and photographer.
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