REGINA - A group described as 100 women and non-binary residents of Regina has signed an open letter to Mayor Sandra Masters and city council over the recent contentious budget process.
In particular the letter, which was posted on the Rally Around Homelessness Facebook page and delivered to City Hall on Friday, addresses what it terms the “repeated attempts by Mayor Masters to discredit Councillors Dan LeBlanc and Andrew Stevens, and the motion to end homelessness with claims of sexism.”
“It is not sexist to expect that our elected officials remain accountable to their commitments,” the letter stated. “It is not sexist to expect that unelected city officials follow the direction of elected representatives when making life-and-death decisions that deeply affect vulnerable residents of our city. It is not sexist to demand that wards most affected by issues of houselessness and policing have representatives at the tables where decisions on those issues are made. These things are vital to a healthy, inclusive, and feminist democracy…
“Ending houselessness is feminist. Sheltering women in positions of power from discomfort at the expense of women for whom the consequences of their inaction are lethal, is not.
“What Mayor Masters and City Manager Niki Anderson experienced was the rightful outrage of core residents who continue to be sidelined and ignored in decision-making. It was the groundswell of a community whose needs were not represented at City Hall until Councillors LeBlanc and Stevens stepped up, sought collaboration, and committed themselves to honestly engaging communities in their wards. Women need more elected officials like them.”
The letter is the latest fallout from last year’s budget, which saw councillors LeBlanc and Stevens take Anderson to court for not including a line item to eliminate homelessness in Regina’s draft budget. Stevens acted as a co-applicant while LeBlanc was the lawyer in the case.
Following the court filing Mayor Masters condemned the court filing as having “tones of sexism” and would later refer to “harassment” of Anderson. The court action ultimately would be unsuccessful.
At a recent news conference Anderson condemned the actions of both LeBlanc and Stevens, and she called on LeBlanc to end his “personal attacks” against her on social media. She said his claims about her had “created a hurtful, toxic environment, in many cases targeting me personally.” Anderson also revealed during that news conference that she would not meet with either LeBlanc or Stevens alone.
During a news conference last December, Anderson had also called their court action against her "humiliating and intimidating."
Last week, council voted 8-2 to remove LeBlanc from an appointment to sit on the Community and Social Impact Committee, with councillors citing a loss of trust in LeBlanc over his role in the court application against the City Manager.
Mayor Masters also pointed to social media posts by LeBlanc directed at the City Manager. “The fact that there was this attack on Niki Anderson, as an employee of ours, our sole employee is almost incomprehensible to me,” Masters said.
