Councillor Michael Dawe (Photo: City of Red Deer)

By Troy Gillard

“People need to calm down”

Councillor Dawe disappointed by threatening phone call over mask debate

Nov 18, 2020 | 3:34 PM

A member of Red Deer city council says he’s more disappointed than anything after receiving a harassing phone call over the hotly-debated issue of whether mask wearing should be made mandatory in Red Deer.

Michael Dawe shared during a special council meeting on Monday that he’d received a phone call at his home from a man angry over his support for a bylaw making the wearing of masks mandatory in indoor public spaces in Red Deer.

Dawe says the man threatened him over his “totally inappropriate, irrational way of looking at the COVID-19 pandemic and how badly we were handling it.”

“It really isn’t so much what he believed in or what he didn’t,” that concerned Dawe, he says. “It was the lack of rationality in ‘going off the deep end’ and instead of making comments, making threats.”

Dawe says the quote from the man that stands out in his mind is “You really piss me off and I’m going to put a stop to it.”

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“I don’t know how else you respond to that (other than to call police). That’s a pretty strong threat, especially because he’s calling me at home, he knows my home phone number and my address.”

Dawe reported the incident to police and played back for them the audio from the phone call, but chose not to pursue harassment charges against the individual.

“They said ‘You definitely have a right to be concerned. This is over the line,” Dawe called.

A Red Deer RCMP spokesperson confirms that officers spoke with the individual from southern Alberta, who has reportedly made similar threats in the Lethbridge area.

When it comes to the more than 700 emails, text messages and phone calls city council has received from people sharing thoughts either for or against a mandatory mask bylaw, Dawe estimates about five per cent have been from people using profanity and aggressive language.

“But of those, this is the one that really stands out as being really threatening,” he says of the troublesome phone call.

Through all his time serving in various public capacities, Dawe says he’s never dealt with a situation as heated as this one.

“I’ve had people really, really angry at me before and tell me that I’m no longer on their Christmas card list. But I’ve never had anyone escalate to a point of saying ‘I don’t like what you’re doing and I’m going to put a stop to it.’”

In the end, Dawe says he’s hopeful that cooler heads can prevail even when it comes to a heated issue such as mask wearing.

“Do I feel physically threatened? No. Am I disappointed in a number of people? Yes,” he admitted.

“People need to calm down, use some common sense and realize that if you start making verbal or physical threats it’s a matter of law. You’re right of free speech does not apply to being able to do anything you want. Whether you’re making threats on Facebook, over the phone or sending a letter, it’s a matter of law, period.”