ROTHENBURGER: Apologizing isn’t easy, especially when you’re a politician

“I’m not the least bit objective about creating a concentration camp out in Rayleigh,” was the way she put it during an interview with Brett Mineer on CHNL last week.

She’s right about one thing — she should have kept an open mind until the debate, at which time she could ask questions about her misgivings. Who knows, they might have been answered to her satisfaction.

She’s wrong, however, about something else, and that’s referring to the idea as a concentration camp.

We most commonly associate concentration camps with Hitler’s Germany in which millions were subjected to slave labour, starved, and murdered. And let us not forget Joseph Stalin’s brutal Gulag prison camps that caused the deaths of close to two million.

To compare a complex-care model for our street-challenged population to concentration camps is a stretch, to say the least, and offensive to some.

So, are apologies in order, as some have suggested? There’s no shame in acknowledging you should have expressed yourself differently but, make no mistake, public apologies are embarrassing for those having to make them. You can’t do it halfway. You can’t downplay it. You can’t begin with, “If I’ve offended anyone.” You have to say, “I’m sorry, I was wrong.” It doesn’t always have to be a big deal, but it has to be authentic.

Is an apology a sign of weakness, or of strength? What are the political consequences of one versus the other? Is an apology a pathway to redemption, or to condemnation?

Some politicians, certainly, overplay the apology card, handing out apologies so often they become meaningless.

Political apologies should be saved for when they’re really needed. Most importantly — setting aside politics and personal embarrassment — one question should be answered: is it the right thing to do?

When offered, apologies are almost always accepted by voters, who are then content to move on to other things. A refusal to apologize can become an issue all on its own and prolong the controversy.

There’s another side to political apologies, though — if you genuinely believe you have nothing to apologize for, if you believe that what you’ve said was right and proper, never apologize simply to avoid the heat.

The motion that will come before council, inspired by local businessman Reid Hamer-Jackson based in part on the VisionQuest recovery centre at Logan Lake and submitted by Coun. Denis Walsh says nothing about forcing anyone into camps.

It does, though, require some clarification, especially one “whereas” clause that says, “those who are doing drugs in public should be directed to a safe location that provides shelter and the necessary support services” and that those who continually break the law due to addiction or mental illness “need some form of effective intervention to protect themselves and the public.”

And it’s certainly clear that safety issues on the street are a big part of the rationale.

But the facility would provide services “such as life-skill training and education, along with a recovery program to positively change the lives of people in need.”

That’s hardly a concentration camp. Almost as soon as the words were out of her mouth, Bass started getting pushback on social media, including calls for her resignation.

When I wrote Monday about the Kingston Avenue shelter site, comments on CFJC’s Facebook page quickly switched to the concentration-camp remark. Bass doubled down, posting a comment of her own in which she said “many people” want to “round them up and put them in Rayleigh. Make them get treatment or put them in jail.”

She added, “And that is my point. Stop saying this. Stop treating them like something to get rid of…. It was time for someone to call out that group who have used Rayleigh as their crutch to rid the city of ‘those people’.”

Bass has also received criticism for sounding dismissive in her original remarks when she referred to Hamer-Jackson as “a car salesman.” (In a separate situation the same week, a Westmount resident who was pressing her on the Kingston Avenue issue says she F-bombed him with the acronym FFS, short for ‘For F— sake.’)

Thursday, Kamloops This week got on the story, and CHNL ran clips from the interview with Mineer on its newscasts, raising the profile of Bass’ misstep. Bass told KTW she won’t apologize for the concentration-camp remark.

It’s actually the second time the apology issue has come up — in 2019, she refused to apologize for profane remarks she tweeted because, as she told CFJC, she wasn’t tweeting in her role as a councillor.

This time, it seems, she’s not only made her decision on the Rayleigh option, but on the apology question as well.

Mel Rothenburger is a former mayor of Kamloops and a retired newspaper editor. He is a regular contributor to CFJC Today, publishes the ArmchairMayor.ca opinion website, and is a director on the Thompson-Nicola Regional District board. He can be reached at mrothenburger@armchairmayor.ca.

——

Editor’s Note: This opinion piece reflects the views of its author, and does not necessarily represent the views of CFJC Today or Pattison Media.

by Mel Rothenburger

ROTHENBURGER: Apologizing isn’t easy, especially when you’re a politician

Our Community