An aspiring Burnaby school trustee is challenging the city over its sign bylaw, which prohibits election advertising on city property, after finding the incumbent council has political brochures at the library.
Several weeks ago, Elias Ishak, who is running as an independent for school board in next month’s election, was informed by the city that he was in violation of Burnaby’s sign bylaw after he placed election signs on streetlights and at intersections. According to the bylaw, “no political or election temporary signs, or temporary signs relating to a public referendum, shall be erected or placed on any public property,” except as otherwise permitted.
But shortly after he took down the signs, Ishak said he noticed the Burnaby Public Library carries anti-pipeline brochures with Mayor Derek Corrigan’s photograph on the cover. Given that the proposed Kinder Morgan pipeline expansion is among the biggest issues in this year’s election, Ishak said he considers the allowance of the brochure at the city-owned library branches hypocritical.
“I kind of took it personally because I got a phone call recently saying, ‘You can’t put up your flyers on city property,’” he said. “It’s one thing for the incumbent party to neutrally publish something without a photo on it before the election, but he had his photo on it.”
Ishak noted he doesn’t take issue with the city’s opposition to the pipeline, but rather the political nature of the pamphlet. He said he asked library staff if he could put his own stack of election brochures at their information booth, but was told anything with political content is not allowed.
However, Sid Cleave, Burnaby’s deputy city clerk, differentiated between Ishak’s election signs on the city’s library brochures about the pipeline expansion, noting there is an obligation by the city to inform residents about the project and the city’s stance.
“From a staff perspective, we look at the city’s position regarding the Kinder Morgan pipeline expansion as kind of a formal city initiative,” he said, noting the brochure have been at the library since May. “The city has taken a formal position against the pipeline based on staff research and analysis. We don’t get into the political side of things.”
When asked about the reasoning for putting the mayor’s photo on the brochure, Cleave later replied via email with the following message: “It should be noted that the mayor’s picture as the leader and official head of the city, along with a brief statement or message from him, appear on a variety of city documents, including the annual financial report and the Burnaby RCMP detachment annual report.”
