CIVIC ELECTION – Mayor, CFJC in verbal spat over televised candidates’ debate

Posted on October 9, 2026 in 'Loops, News, Page One, Politics // 1 Comment

Left to right, Ivory Winston, Mike O’Reilly, Nelly Dever, Ray Dhaliwal. (Image: Screenshot)

Mayor Reid Hamer-Jackson and CFJC-TV are scrapping over Thursday night’s (Oct. 8, 2026) televised mayoral candidates’ debate.

Hamer-Jackson says he didn’t participate in the debate because he couldn’t be sure his comments would be presented unedited in the broadcast of the forum, which was pre-recorded in the afternoon.

He has often been critical of media coverage during his term, and has also called for a live forum in which the public can ask questions at a microphone rather than submit them in writing.

On Tuesday, Hamer-Jackson emailed CFJC’s news director James Peters, telling him why he wouldn’t be at the station’s forum.

“I will not be attending as you are well aware I believe we should have a live open forum with citizens being able to be present and ask questions in a open microphone setting and on zoom with hundreds of citizens able to be in attendance,” he wrote.

“Just like 2022 when you were one of the monitors at tru. There were 2 in October of 2022 where hundreds of people attended at both forums.

“Hopefully that is your contingency plan and not an edited version. Thanks Mayor Hamer-Jackson. We have excluded the citizens long enough.”

Hamer-Jackson wanted to know, after he watched the forum, why Peters, who moderated the event, didn’t explain at the start of it why he wasn’t there.

Peters replied today (Oct. 9, 2026):

“Mr. Mayor,

“It is a very easy question to answer: mayoral candidates who had messages to convey to the public were invited to participate in the debate. All six candidates were invited to participate. If they weren’t going to participate in the debate, they wouldn’t have the opportunity to have their messages heard by the public during our program.

“I will also point out – and I’m sure the four participants will confirm – the debate program that aired and is available online shows each candidate’s responses to each question in full. No portion of the debate that took place between the four candidates was left out.”

Kris Lloyd-Middleton also didn’t attend, explaining she had bronchitis. That left Ivory Winston, Mike O’Reilly, Nelly Dever and Ray Dhaliwal to debate.