Insights from the Kamloops Critic

Residents are encouraged to email citycouncil@kamloops.ca
with concerns about Kamloops City Council decisions. An internal email thread suggests some messages may not meet a councillor’s “threshold of being worthy of response.”

The December 13 Hypothetical That Wasn’t So Hypothetical During the December 13, 2022 regular Council meeting's Public Inquiries section, there were a couple inquiries about closed meetings. At one point, an unidentified voice — not clearly captured on microphone —...

A second defamation lawsuit between Mayor Reid Hamer-Jackson and Councillor Katie Neustaeter turns on a key question: when does “observing” become “spying”? Court transcripts show Neustaeter acknowledged that “spying” was her interpretation of the Mayor’s email and that the bathroom in question was not visible from his office. This article examines how a restricted-area inquiry escalated into allegations of monitoring women in a washroom, how the first lawsuit was dismissed under anti-SLAPP protections, and why Council’s decision to indemnify the councillor raises accountability questions.

A personal reflection on Mayor Reid Hamer-Jackson, voter intent, and why change in Kamloops was always going to be uncomfortable — and why that matters.

After three emails and nearly three months, only the Mayor responded. When I published Why the O’Reilly Case Matters in Kamloops, I suggested the case was about more than one councillor or one complaint. It was about whether City Council understands what ethical...

In the days following the dismissal of Mayor Reid Hamer-Jackson’s defamation lawsuit, Councillor Katie Neustaeter has characterized the court’s decision as vindication. That word is doing far more work than the judgment itself supports. The court didn't declare the...

Local coverage of Hamer-Jackson v. Neustaeter has settled into a comfortable, low-effort storyline: Free speech wins. Case dismissed. Move along. It’s tidy. It’s simple. It’s also incomplete in a way that meaningfully misleads readers. Justice J. Hughes did not...

After evidence showed a missing vote in Kamloops council minutes, the Deputy Mayor refused to engage, calling accuracy concerns “not legitimate city business.”

Municipal council minutes are supposed to be the official historical record of what occurred during a public meeting. They are relied upon by residents, journalists, lawyers, and courts as evidence of how decisions were reached. But a review of the City of Kamloops’...

At a time when Kamloops residents are bracing for significant tax increases, job insecurity, and the rising cost of simply staying afloat, the City appears to have quietly done what it does best: expand management — without bothering to tell anyone. Buried inside the...