Hundreds of Hamiltonians packed the public gallery for Wednesday’s Council committee meeting, and staff conducted themselves not just professionally, but courteously and helpfully.
There were three primary groups in the gallery: the 55 striking water workers, the Hamilton Encampment Support Network, and supporters of the Art Gallery of Hamilton.
There were not enough seats in the Council Chamber and people were seated on the stairs.
In the past, city staff would enter the gallery and tell people they could not sit on the stairs, or stand against the back walls.
This meeting, nothing was said.
At one point, a senior staff member got up from one of the back row desks, offered the seat to an older woman, and he stood against the back walls.
As a public gallery does, there were occasional heckles, cheers, and jeers.
Nobody on staff or council responded to them.
Eventually, Greg Hoath, Business Manager of International Union of Engineers Local 772, interrupted the meeting to shout out his demands and positions.
City staff muted the livestream, Hoath made his statements (including character attacks against senior city staff), and was mostly ignored.
At the end of Hoath’s initial interruption, Ward 2 Councillor Cameron Kroetsch, who was in the chair, looked at him and stated words to the effect that he had been given time to speak. Kroetsch sought agreement from Hoath not to interrupt the meeting further, and Hoath agreed.
A few minutes later, Hoath and his fellow strikers left the Chamber but not before taking out a sound amplifier to repeat their demands.
And with that, the meeting went forward without any further interruptions.
This all was an improvement compared to two weeks ago when city staff entered into the gallery to confront protesters and thus began a series of confrontations that eventually involved police.
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v. 1.0.0
Published: June 12, 2025
Last updated: June 12, 2025
Author: Joey Coleman
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v. 1.0.0 original version