A story published to the Northern View website on Thursday is likely to make for much conversation and perhaps some soul searching in Prince Rupert for those who share public space with Councillor Reid Skelton Morven at City Hall and particularly for those members of the community who speak out towards violence against women.
Thursday's concerning report from Seth Forward highlights accusations of physical abuse at the hand of Councillor Skelton-Morven, those coming from Vanessa Engel a former partner of the Second term City Councillor, who is now calling on Mr. Morven to step down from his post as an elected official.
The genesis for the story of November 23rd, was formed through a social media video that she released through her Facebook page on October 30th.
That initial video was followed up with numerous other entries and additional background information by way of print documents from the Ministry of Children and Family Development which became involved following the 2015 incident of note.
There do not appear to have been any charges followed up on by the RCMP in relation to that incident, though the notes from the MCFD files indicate that Victim Services was involved with the case file.
While the incident of note comes from 2015, the additional videos further along in her stream observe that there were other incidents during their time together.
When the couple parted ways is not clear, however they were together for close to five years.
In the Northern View story, the Prince Rupert RCMP had no comment to offer related to the accusations, while over at Prince Rupert City Hall the tone was guarded.
Reminding the community that they voted the Councillor to office in the last election and he's accountable only to them, not Council.
In one of her videos, Ms. Engel notes that she had been in touch with the mayor on a previous occasion related to her accusations and according to her, his reply was that from his perspective he was not Reid's boss, but that the councillor was the servant of the people.
Which is in a similar vein to his comments for the paper on Thursday.
Those thoughts for the Northern View have been the mayor's only public comments to this point, the serious nature of the situation something not noted at any previous council session, or making for any conversation through his social media stream.
For his part, the Councillor has not returned the calls from the Newspaper seeking comment.
Mr. Skelton Morven worked for Black Press. the publisher of the Northern View as a Regional Multi Media Marketing consultant since May, a post he held up until just a few weeks ago.
His unannounced departure (up until yesterday's story) seemingly just ahead of the story development phase.
The City Councillor has also not been part of any public Civic governance activities this month; having missed out on much of the recent council civic budget discussion through November owing to his absence.
That absence attributed to personal family health matters requiring the Councillor to be out of town.
Councillor Skelton-Morven's last in person appearance at a City Council session was on October 23rd, a meeting where the Mayor took time to praise his recent work on the totem raising ceremony at Galloway Rapids.
Two weeks previous Mr. Skelton-Morven had spoken to the event, noting of the tribute and commemoration that it would serve towards both Indian Residential School Survivors and Missing, Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls.
At many past council sessions, the councillor has often spoken out on issues of women's rights and against violence towards women.
Themes that have served to shape his council persona; but certainly do not share current with that which has been portrayed through the news report from Thursday and the social media material that shaped it.
Council will meet again on Monday evening, which could make the November 27th session both a well attended in-person event, as well as one viewed through the city's live video feed.
First to see if the councillor even attends, as well as if anyone from the public asks to address council towards the issue. Also of interest for the night, if those members around the Council chamber will speak to the concerns that have been raised through the newspaper story.
Should Mr. Morven miss the next meeting, and if his previous two absences were not documented as excused absences, City Council has an option to use Section 110 of Division 7 of the Community Charter to seek his removal.
If they were considered excused absences, that easy solution to a bad situation won't be of much use.
Mr. Pond may correctly state that without any legal charges to address that there is no role for Council to play. However, on a community moral issue and one of civic reputation and leadership, it could be an issue that quickly overtakes them.
As the Mayor stated to the paper, the Councillor is accountable to the public, and that same public could shape the future for Prince Rupert City Council sessions with interventions of advocacy in every session ahead, making for a situation which would quickly dominate any civic agenda that Council hopes to move forward with.
Ms. Engel and her supporters did attend the Special November 6th session which was Budget Presentation night, but chose not to speak at that council meeting, likely as the Mayor specifically called for comment only related to the Budget.
In one of her follow up videos to the first of October 30th, she notes that she was advised prior to the session by the Mayor that she would not be able to directly address the councillor.
In that same video, she also observes how the Prince Rupert RCMP had spoken to her over concerns related to harassment of the councillor, though no charges appear to have been followed up on from that visit.
Now that the story has been reported, an attempt to seek opportunity to address council at large may again be a course of action moving forward.
Clearly, Councillor Skelton-Morven needs to address the Northern View story and the accusations from his former partner, and outline what it all means for his political future.
Should he choose to try and ride out what looks like a very troubled period ahead, it will certainly put a spotlight on how Council members view the issue of spousal/partner abuse and in light of what has been reported, whether their words of many years to those concerns hold any weight in their own chamber.
Both the members of City Council and the MLA will have to decide if they have a personal statute of limitations on concerning accusations, backing that up with some kind of response to a serious situation.
There may be more to come on the story, in addition to the Northern View, Ms. Engel also had reached out to CBC Daybreak North and Global News, though so far there have been no reports aired from either broadcaster.
Past themes of Council can be reviewed through our archive page here.
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Re Comments submitted for this story: After a day of consideration, we have decided to keep the comments window closed to this story, owing to the serious nature of the issue in the public eye at the moment.
Those who may have thoughtful contributions to share to the topic can of course make use of options of the public social media streams for the two principles.
For those that believe City Council may have a role to play towards the issue, the Mayor and most City Councillors also have social media streams, a list of which is available here.
As well, the City of Prince Rupert has a listing of how to contact the elected officials at city hall which you can access here.
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