ROTHENBURGER – Why all involved should just walk away from FOI debacle

THE MAYOR has sent in the files requested by the City on the subject of the FOI application that blew up in council chambers this week. But Coun. Margot Middleton, who raised the issue Tuesday, and to whom the files were supposed to be sent, says the records haven’t been received.

Just as it seems the mysteries around this mess are becoming clearer, they become more confusing.

Middleton told me via email today (March 12, 2026): “Mel, To date the City has not received the responsive records. This statement is accurate at the time this email was sent.”

The time was 1:22 p.m. But Mayor Hamer-Jackson has shown me a screenshot of a text he received from the councillor at 7:10 a.m. that says she “forwarded the records you sent to legal.”

At this writing, I haven’t heard back from Coun. Middleton whether or not this means she received records but that they’re inadequate, or what. Meanwhile, the plot thickens or, perhaps, sickens.

Yesterday (March 11, 2026) reporter Levi Landry posted a story (‘We asked for the Kamloops mayor’s emails — all we got is political theatre’) acknowledging that iNFOnews.ca was the media outlet behind the FOI application that created the uproar and was the subject of Middleton’s motion demanding the mayor comply within 24 hours or face possible financial penalties.

Landry said Hamer-Jackson had sent iNFOnews.ca some internal emails but “they were immaterial to the request and out of the Freedom of Information process filed last August.” That last part is true, of course — the process is supposed to be that the subject of an FOI application provides the requested records to the (in this case) municipality’s FOI officer for vetting before release to the applicant. And then there’s the matter, as I mentioned yesterday, of the applicant’s identity normally being confidential and any contact between the applicant and the subject being highly unusual.

(I’m still trying to clarify why Middleton was the point person for council even though she wasn’t deputy mayor last fall when the application was initially being dealt with, but the only thing she’s told me in response is “This was a council resolution.” When I get it cleared up I’ll let you know.)

“We were unaware Middleton would raise the issue at the council meeting and regret the awkward position of covering an issue we play an unwitting part in,” Landry wrote.

He concluded with, “To date, iNFOnews.ca has not received any of the emails and text messages we asked for.”

This afternoon, iNFOnews.ca editor Marshall Jones dropped a bit of a bombshell in an intriguing piece (‘Why we dropped the FOI request behind the drama at Monday’s (sic) Kamloops council meeting’) expanding on the online publication’s involvement.

He writes that iNFOnews.ca decided three weeks ago to withdraw that application. He says Middleton “weaponized” the iNFOnews.ca records request against the mayor.

The news that the FOI application was being withdrawn is damning to Middleton and the rest of council, but Jones isn’t thrilled with the mayor either. “…We have no confidence our request to see the mayor’s communications through a set period of time will be fulfilled with any integrity, nor in the process designed to enforce it. We have withdrawn our request before we are drawn further into a news story we still intend to cover and before it turns into a costly debacle for taxpayers in an election year.”

He continued, “We’d hoped to find information he didn’t want us to know. That’s why the legislation exists, why we used it.”

As an aside, Jones notes this isn’t the first time the news outlet’s records requests were “corrupted at city hall and manipulated for political gain,” referring to the Tapegate scandal. In that one, he writes, Coun. Bill Sarai “somehow knew” the day before Landry got the records he would use “to expose him” for audio recording a meeting with Hamer-Jackson, and used the time to “come clean and spin the story to his favour in another news outlet before Landry even got it.”

I recall writing at the time about that bit of competitive tension between inFOnews.ca and Castanet.

I recommend you tap into Jones’ article; it’s worth reading. The question now arises, what happens with the council’s threatened sanction against Hamer-Jackson? Now that the FOI application has been withdrawn, what’s the point of an OIPC investigation, which the applicant triggered?

And, why did Middleton and council go ahead with Tuesday’s dramatics when they must have known the application was no longer in play. As Jones writes, “Three weeks ago, we decided to drop the FOI, since it was that or initiate an investigation. City sources privately suggested we keep going. We didn’t know why, then. We do now.”

I’m guessing there are going to be a few red faces around City Hall before this one settles out. Best everyone around the horseshoe finds an off ramp as quick as possible.

Mel Rothenburger is a former regular contributor to CFJC-TV and CBC radio, publishes the ArmchairMayor.ca opinion website, writes for the Kamloops Chronicle and is a recipient of the Jack Webster Foundation Lifetime Achievement Award, and has been a Webster Foundation Commentator of the Year finalist. He has served as mayor of Kamloops, school board chair and TNRD director, and is a retired daily newspaper editor.  He can be reached at mrothenburger@armchairmayor.ca.