If you want to watch your city’s council meeting, odds are these days you don’t need to leave your house. Most civic governments offer online video of meetings. That’s not the case everywhere, however, and a group of residents in Kirkland, Que., on the Island of Montreal, say they want their city to enter the 21st century.
Kirkland only posts audio recordings.
“The problem is that these guys haven’t evolved. That’s why we refer to them as dinosaurs sometimes,” said Lucien Pigeon, who has launched a petition demanding Kirkland broadcast all its council meetings with high quality video and audio.
“Seven of the ten West Island municipalities have perfect webcasts,” he said.
On the West Island, only Dollard-des-Ormeaux, Sainte-Anne-de-Bellevue and Kirkland do not consistently broadcast both video and audio online.
READ MORE: Beloved community book box plucked from Kirkland front lawn
“We need more transparency and accountability, like all the other municipalities,” said Pigeon.
He sees no reason for Kirkland not to do it, and he’s not alone.
Susan Gingras-Calcagni would also like to see Kirkland broadcast video.
“What about the mum who’s at home at 7 p.m. or 8 p.m. and trying to get the kids off to bed, the fathers’ bathing them and whatnot. Let’s open up our lines of communication,” she told Global News.
Keith Glashin, who has lived in Kirkland for more than 40 years, signed Pigeon’s petition Wednesday morning.
“I wouldn’t mind catching up on the council meeting if I was absent,” he said, explaining he rarely misses a meeting in person.
Pigeon said his petition has at least 400 signatures.
READ MORE: Kirkland boy collects and donates 1,000 books for the less fortunate
Mayor Michel Gibson, however, does not love the idea of broadcasting video of all meetings online.
“It’s just a choice,” he told Global News. “I don’t believe you need to see a face to understand what’s basically recorded.”
He worries about people taking quotes out of context, or doctoring the videos with malicious intent. Politicians are indeed facing more online attacks than ever.
“These videos could be easily downloaded and manipulated face-wise,” he said.
Gibson also points to how the current online version of Kirkland’s council meeting doesn’t exactly garner a huge audience. The June 13 meeting had 32 views on YouTube at the time of this writing.
“I don’t know if video, by seeing our face, would basically have a bigger clientele,” said Gibson.
Nevertheless, he says Kirkland is all about transparency, and videos wouldn’t be all that expensive, so council will discuss the idea in September.
Comments