Troubling incident at councillor's home leads Langford mayor to ask former mayor to denounce behaviour

At a press conference on Wednesday, Langford Mayor Scott Goodmanson was flanked by four city councillors as he called for unity within the community.

“The City of Langford is at its most divided today,” said Goodmanson.

He says a troubling incident took place not long ago that went beyond peaceful protest.

“This member of the public was observed staring through the windows and appearing to be taking photographs of the inside of a council member's home,” said Goodmanson.

The mayor isn’t saying which council member it was, nor who the member of the public is that is being accused of the privacy breach. He’s only saying that the councillor now fears for their family's safety.

Goodmanson is calling on community leaders to denounce the incident, including former mayor Stew Young.

“First off, they shouldn’t have mentioned my name in the press conference,” said Young. “I don’t know anything that they’re talking about.”

The former mayor says he was blindsided by this and only found out about it once members of the media reached out to him for comment.

Young says he is not willing to step in.

“I don’t even know who these people are and I’m not going to go around and say ‘Hey, you shouldn’t do this and you shouldn’t do that,'” said Young.

As far as the incident goes, the West Shore RCMP confirms to CTV News that it did receive a complaint from the council member. It says although the behaviour displayed by the citizen was concerning, no criminal act had been committed.

A group called Our Langford has been protesting unprecedented property tax increases in the municipality since last year.

“What we’re trying to do is advocate for the taxpayers and the renters,” said Lisa Foxall, a member of Our Langford.

Foxall says the individual accused of invading the privacy of the council member was not with Our Langford and that the group has no intention of ending its protests.

“It’s just bringing the community together that can’t afford these tax increases,” said Foxall.

The mayor of Langford says the city is prepared to take steps to make sure council members, the public and staff feel safe during council meetings.

“Banning individuals who have behaved inappropriately from in-person attendance at council and committee meetings or seeking stronger remedies through the courts,” said Goodmanson.

What the mayor won’t be getting is the protests to cease or the former mayor to intervene.