How a Facebook comment about fish and chips led to an ethics complaint against an elected official in B.C.
The Moby Dick restaurant has been serving up its famous fish and chips on the White Rock promenade since it was founded by the Mueller family in 1975. But one local city councillor clearly isn’t a fan.
Commenting below a positive post about the Moby Dick, Coun. David Chesney wrote: “Living off its reputation for decades. When Peter Mueller left, so did the #1 rating. Go next door to Coney Island where all the locals eat.”
The current owner of the Moby Dick responded on the restaurant’s own Facebook page, telling customers it has filed a formal ethics complaint against councillor Chesney with the city of White Rock.
The letter addressed to the city’s chief administrative officer reads in part: “These comments are defamatory and are not supported by facts. Moreover, these comments are aimed at hurting my business by encouraging other people to avoid my restaurant and to visit another place next door.”
COUNCILLOR CODE OF CONDUCT
John Alexander, a lawyer who specializes in municipal litigation, points out the City of White Rock did adopt a new code of conduct bylaw for elected officials in March 2023.
“It does say that one of the things councillors should not do is defame another person. But the bylaw is clearly addressed to councillors acting in their capacity as city councillors and conducting city business,” said Alexander.
University of the Fraser Valley political science professor Hamish Telford says the dispute illustrates the challenges elected officials face when posting public opinions on social media.
“Although he may have thought that he was making a personal comment, it could be construed by the business owner as an official comment coming from a sitting city councillor and hence the business owner taking exception to these comments,” said Telford.
“All politicians do have to be more careful when they are making these sorts of comments, because it’s impossible for people to separate their official capacity from their personal capacity, particularly when the comments are coming from social media accounts that are used for both purposes.”
PAST CONTROVERSY
CTV reached out to David Chesney for comment on the ethics complaint, but didn’t receive a reply. It’s not the first time the councillor’s public comments have landed him in hot water.
On a podcast in 2015, Chesney talked about his distaste for modern maternity wear, saying: “They can’t get any more skin tight, and it looks like sausage casings. Their belly button is actually pushing through the material. And I kind of look at that and go, I get it, you’re pregnant. Why is there such a desire to push that in front of everyone?”
Alexander says those types of comments would be far more likely to run afoul of city hall ethics bylaws than the social media post about the restaurant.
“This new code specifically says that you won’t breach the human rights code or say anything that’s bullying or harassing, so I would think had this bylaw been in place in 2015, he definitely would have faced a complaint from someone or more people that might have had much more legitimacy,” said Alexander.
As for the Moby Dick’s official complaint about Chesney’s Facebook comment, the lawyer doubts it will go anywhere at White Rock city hall.
“Councillors have a private life outside of being a councillor, and I would think this councillor’s comments are unlikely connected to anything that he is dealing with as a city councillor. So whether the bylaw applies at all — probably not.”
On the advice of his lawyer, the owner of the Moby Dick is not speaking to the media. Like David Chesney, he’s making all his comments on Facebook.
CTVNews.ca Top Stories
BREAKING Federal employees will be required to spend 3 days a week in the office
Starting in September, public servants in the core public administration will be required to work in the office a minimum of three days a week. The Treasury Board Secretariat says executives will need to be in the office four days per week.
Concerns about plexiglass prompt inspections at some Loblaws locations in Ottawa
Inspections are underway at more than one Loblaws location in Ottawa after complaints were filed about tall plexiglass barriers.
Canada's most wanted fugitive arrested in P.E.I. in connection with Toronto homicide
A suspect in a fatal shooting in Toronto’s east end last summer has been arrested in Charlottetown, just one week after he topped a list of Canada’s most wanted fugitives.
OPP officer said 'someone's going to get hurt' before wrong-way Hwy. 401 crash
As multiple Durham police cruisers were chasing a robbery suspect on the wrong side of Highway 401 Monday night, an Ontario Provincial Police officer shared his concerns, telling a dispatcher, "Someone's going to get hurt."
Poilievre returns to House unrepentant for calling Trudeau 'wacko,' Speaker not resigning
An unrepentant Pierre Poilievre returned to the House of Commons on Wednesday to pepper the prime minister about his drug decriminalization policies after being booted the day prior for refusing to take back calling Justin Trudeau 'wacko' over his approach to the issue.
Five human skeletons, missing hands and feet, found outside house of Nazi leader Hermann Göring
Archeologists have unearthed the skeletons of five people, missing their hands and feet, at a former Nazi military base in Poland.
Toddler of Phoenix first responder dies after bounce house goes airborne
A two-year-old child died after a strong gust of wind sent the bounce house he was in airborne and into a neighbouring lot in central Arizona, the Pinal County Sheriff's Office said.
Plane overshoots runway at airport in St. John's, N.L., no injuries reported
Investigators from the Transportation Safety Board of Canada are headed to St. John's, N.L., after a plane overshot a runway at the city's airport this afternoon.
A teen was found buried in a basement in New York. An engraved ring helped police learn her identity two decades later
For more than two decades, the unknown victim was nicknamed "Midtown Jane Doe" because she was found in the Hell's Kitchen neighbourhood of New York City. But this week, investigators finally revealed her identity.