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Yellowknifer editorial: Words matter, councillor

Sometimes bad behaviour come back to bite a person in the posterior more than once.
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Yellowknife Coun. Niels Konge violated city council’s code of conduct last year, the municipality’s integrity commissioner has ruled. It’s time for Konge’s peers to let him know resolutely that tolerance for such offensive behaviour is running short. NNSL file photo

Sometimes bad behaviour come back to bite a person in the posterior more than once.

Niels Konge finds himself in that very circumstance.

The City of Yellowknife’s integrity commissioner, lawyer Sheldon Toner, has assessed Konge’s conduct from September and November of last year and, in a report released at the beginning of the week, he determined that the city councillor breached the code of conduct that he swore to uphold.

The incidents were well publicized at the time.

In September, the occasionally unpolished councillor brought up the ’60s Scoop — when Indigenous children were taken from their families and placed with non-Indigenous foster families — as discussion revolved around problems posed by the pandemic for small businesses. It was a clumsy and tasteless attempt at an analogy.

In November, Konge compared the plight of those unvaccinated by choice to the historical segregation that Black people endured. Somehow, he arrived at the conclusion that there was some sort of parallel between the public spaces that unvaccinated people were not allowed to access and Black people being prevented from sitting at the front of buses decades ago. Mayor Rebecca Alty referred to the statement as “completely unacceptable” while Coun. Shauna Morgan said it was a “really inaccurate and inappropriate comparison to make and could be profoundly disrespectful to people in groups who have historically suffered from systemic oppression.”

The Black Advocacy Coalition Up North quickly condemned the comment and demanded a public apology.

In light of those major gaffes and the integrity commissioner’s report, council must now consider what actions should be taken, if any.

Whether council will raise Konge’s history from his previous term when, in 2017, he was reprimanded for failing to treat city employees in a “courteous manner” remains to be seen.

Council has no authority to remove Konge outright, just from a meeting. Ousting him altogether would have only have spurred allegations of “cancel culture” among his supporters anyway.

It’s important to remember that Konge did issue apologies after each incident — the first on the same day, the second took several days.

“I did not mean for my words to hurt anyone, but they did and for that, I am deeply sorry,” he said the second time.

Contrition ought to count for something.

But the number of chances any elected official should get ought to be limited. City councillors, like MLAs and members of Parliament, must be held to a higher ethical standard than the average citizen. They all pledge to uphold the public trust.

Yet Konge is a repeat offender. Imagine if he’d uttered those appalling and unbecoming comments on a national stage while representing Yellowknife at the Federation of Canadian Municipalities, for example. It would be a real embarrassment for our city.

Konge seems to pride himself on his frankness. He has a duty and obligation to represent his supporters, as well as the best interests of Yellowknifers. But in doing so, the words he chooses deliver a message of their own.

In light of the integrity commissioner’s report, council, hopefully unanimously, should be equally frank with Konge: We’re quickly losing patience with your unnecessary blunders. Get your act together.