𝐌𝐨𝐫𝐞 𝐓𝐰𝐢𝐬𝐭𝐬 𝐢𝐧 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐊𝐚𝐦𝐥𝐨𝐨𝐩𝐬’ 𝐂𝐢𝐭𝐲 𝐇𝐚𝐥𝐥 𝐅𝐎𝐈 𝐒𝐜𝐚𝐧𝐝𝐚𝐥

What happened at Tuesday’s council meeting raises serious questions—and new information is now complicating the story further.

The issue centres on a motion brought forward by Councillor Margot Middleton regarding a Freedom of Information (FOI) request for the Mayor’s emails and texts, which she said had not been provided.

-Why did Councillor Middleton declare the Mayor had broken the law and threaten penalties—before the Privacy Commissioner (OIPC) had even finished investigating or determined whether the law had been violated?

-Are we to believe Councillor Katie Neustaeter didn’t know what the motion was about—while the other councillors and the Corporate Officer clearly did?

See Facebook video here: https://www.facebook.com/share/v/1DDiLdq7mQ/

-Why didn’t the Mayor simply re-send the records in question, as asked?

*As this post was being prepared, the Mayor forwarded the following information:

The Mayor advises that he brought his phone to the City’s IT department yesterday (Mar. 13, 2026), where an IT staff member confirmed nine text screenshots were sent from his phone to Councillor Margot Middleton on Aug. 26, 2025 containing the FOI information in question.

According to the Mayor, the IT staff member noted that Apple’s messaging system is very secure and asked whether the Mayor knew which IT employee Councillor Middleton spoke to when she claimed her phone had been checked and no texts from the Mayor were found.

Note: InfoNews reports that both the FOI request and the OIPC complaint have now been withdrawn.

Read the iNFOnews article here: Why we dropped the FOI request behind the drama at Tuesday’s Kamloops council meeting

Read the Armchair Mayor article here: ROTHENBURGER – Why all involved should just walk away from FOI debacle