Victoria city councillors will get in-house training about the city’s code of conduct bylaw after an investigation found Coun. Susan Kim inadvertently breached the code.
Council voted 7-1 — Kim recused herself from proceedings — on Thursday to accept the findings of the investigation, which recommended Kim not be sanctioned for breaching the code when she failed to make it clear her social media views were her own.
“The investigator did a thorough and complete job based upon the code of conduct that this council endorsed,” said Mayor Marianne Alto. “We set out the code. We had a thorough and lengthy discussion about it, and the investigator used that as her guide, and I am satisfied that she did so fairly and thoroughly.This is her recommendation and I support it.”
Marisa Cruikshank, a Vancouver-based lawyer with Lidstone & Co., who has been confirmed as the city’s permanent code of conduct investigator, concluded in her report that Kim’s breach was inadvertent and that no sanction was warranted.
Cruikshank was appointed on Dec. 5 to investigate after a Victoria resident alleged Kim breached the code of conduct bylaw by signing a letter titled “Stand with Palestine: Call on Political Leaders to End Their Complicity in Genocide” and by liking a pro-Palestine post on the social media platform X. In signing the letter, she described herself as a city councillor.
The complaint, submitted by the mayor on behalf of a member of the public, alleged Kim’s conduct discriminated against Jewish members of the community and that she failed to treat city residents with respect.
Cruikshank concluded that Kim was unaware that her communications would fall within the scope of the bylaw and thought she was signing the letter and liking the tweet in her personal life. The investigation was the first under the city’s code of conduct bylaw.
Coun. Matt Dell said there were lessons for all of council in the investigation and that he has realized there are a “lot of potential landmines to step on for all of us.” Dell said he has already learned some lessons and welcomed the training to come.
Coun. Stephen Hammond said he accepted the investigator’s report, but pushed for an amendment to sanction Kim by having her write a letter of apology to have on the city record.
“When she put city councillor beside her name, she knew full well this was trying to give her endorsement of that document [the letter] as more than Ms. Susan Kim,” he said. “It was a deliberate action on Ms. Kim’s part, and has not only brought negative attention locally, but it did so provincially, nationally and internationally.”
His amendment was defeated — only Hammond and Coun. Marg Gardiner voted for it — with one councillor pointing out Kim had already written a letter of apology that Hammond had described as “very good.”
Gardiner said she took issue with the entire process and suggested the code of conduct needs revising. “This is the first test of the code and I find it wanting,” she said, noting the original complainant, a resident, was cut out of the process and unable to respond to Kim’s submissions.
The code of conduct bylaw permits complaints to be submitted only by council members, committee members and employees. A council member can submit a complaint on behalf of a member of the public, as Alto did in this case.
Gardiner also took issue with the investigator’s conclusions that the breach was inadvertent, noting Kim is bright, experienced and understands social media. “Coun. Susan Kim has endorsed a letter claiming that the rape of Jewish women by Hamas terrorists on Oct. 7 didn’t happen. It’s hard to imagine anything more offensive,” she said.
“I found this just astounding and she did this displaying her position as a city councillor. A review under our new and previously untested code of conduct recommends that sanctions are not warranted — seems that anything goes.” Gardiner said she would push for a review of the code “to remove the secrecy surrounding how information is sought and processed and to ensure that future complaints against city councillors receive a fair hearing.”
Kim declined to address council, though her legal counsel Noah Ross did address the amendment Hammond suggested. “It’s important as an early decision, I think, for council to not intervene and impose amendments or changes to the recommendation provided by the investigator,” Ross said.
