Watchdog slams rural mayor over remarks about hospital CEO: ‘Gun is fully loaded’

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A rural mayor has received a formal reprimand from his political colleagues for comments an integrity commissioner labelled as threatening and potentially incendiary

Kevin Eccles is in his fourth term holding the top political office in West Grey, a municipality of roughly 13,000 located near Hanover in Grey County. He leads a seven-person council.

In early April, the South Bruce Grey Health Centre announced its plan to relocate all 10 inpatient beds from the hospital in Durham to larger centres in Walkerton and Kincardine due to a staff shortage. West Grey’s municipal council, its mayor, and several community members have since been vocal in opposing the decision.

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At a West Grey council meeting on April 30, Eccles said: “One statement that I’ve put out there verbally has been I told the CEO and president of South Bruce Grey Health Association (Nancy Shaw) to keep her hands off of the Durham Hospital and I’ll promise to keep my hands off of your throat.”

Eccles apologized for those comments on May 5.

Then, on May 7, in a radio interview, Eccles said: “The public is still angry, not connecting with the information coming forward. The community itself is ready to go to battle on this, whether it’s political or legal. The gun is fully loaded and we’re ready to fire shots. We’re going to hit the target to keep our hospital open. . . . Dangerous is an appropriate word being used in this.”

Integrity commissioner Janice Atwood told West Grey councillors at a meeting this week that Eccles’ public comments threatened physical violence against Shaw and breached council’s code of conduct.

The watchdog’s report said the mayor’s comments seemed to suggest the CEO is personally responsible and that her elimination could bring about a reversal of the reallocation of beds, and that “in these times, regardless of intention, some members of the public may hear the words of political leaders as a literal ‘call-to-arms’ and respond in unanticipated ways.”

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The report noted there are now individuals attending the hospital who ask for the CEO by name in what staff fear is a menacing manner, and some senior administrators have experienced threats against them.

“Uttering such statements was irresponsible, threatened the safety of the named target, and amounted to intimidation and constitute acts of physical violence,” the report states. “We find that these statements breached the code of conduct.”

Atwood and her firm recommended council suspend the mayor’s salary for 14 days, but councillors voted 4-2 in favour of a lighter penalty. Deputy mayor Tom Hutchinson and Coun. Joyce Nuhn opposed the motion to formally reprimand the mayor. Coun. Scott Foerster, Coun. Doug Hutchinson, Coun. Geoffrey Shea and Coun. Doug Townsend voted in favour of a formal reprimand.

Eccles recused himself from the meeting during the vote and stayed out of the discussion, other than to clarify his statement made on May 7 was during an interview on Blackburn Radio out of Wingham and with the clear context that he was speaking about lawyers being at the ready, rather than actual guns being loaded and ready to fire.

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It’s a phrase, Coun. Townsend contended, that has been used for years to describe hiring Bay Street lawyers.

In the report, the watchdog said Eccles did not intend for the statements to be taken literally or to be threatening. Atwood noted that despite the intention, recent examples have shown politicians’ words can be used as a “call to arms.”

“In our view, it does not appear that the mayor fully appreciates the serious impacts that his statements have had on the CEO and on senior administrators,” the report states.

Said Atwood: “We live in times when the irresponsible words of political leaders have been known to motivate members of the public to act in unanticipated ways.”

Coun. Hutchinson called the integrity commissioners’ recommendation of a 14-day pay suspension “a little heavy,” but noted a politician’s words can incite inappropriate behaviour. “Just look at our neighbours to the south,” he said.

Coun. Townsend called the report incomplete and one-sided.

“A product, unfortunately, of a very soft world that we live in today. Everybody takes offence to something and we continue to pay attention to those people,” he said. “We must coddle them, stroke their hand, and say everything will be alright and then try to hold people accountable. It’s not right.”

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Townsend said he’d much rather have a fiery and emotional mayor than one who would “roll over” when someone “takes their hospital away.”

In response to those comments, Atwood said it was inappropriate to call a response to the mayor’s threatening comments “coddling.”

Atwood said integrity commissioners in Ontario can recommend a maximum penalty of a 90-day pay suspension, with the lower end of the spectrum being a formal reprimand. She said the 14-day pay suspension was meant to be a “sting” rather than a “slap on the wrist.”

Eccles declined to comment on the watchdog’s report and the decision of council. He said the report is a public document people can view, if they wish, and that he considers the matter closed.

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