INNISFAIL – Two Innisfail town councillors have apologized for breaking social distancing guidelines for a selfie photo shoot at the end of a public meeting in mid-September.
At town council’s Agenda & Priorities meeting on Sept. 21, Coun. Gavin Bates opened up the council round table discussion by addressing the selfie issue that occurred at the end of training meeting of the Welcoming & Inclusive Community Committee at the Innisfail Library/Learning Centre on Sept. 14.
In a prepared statement, Bates said he wanted to “personally apologize” to his fellow council members for the group selfie photo, which he said was “obviously spontaneous and not well planned.
“Social distancing was clearly not followed. I should have quickly recognized that and stepped aside,” said Bates. “Unfortunately, the photo was manipulated into social media messaging to label all of council, which I find to be mean spirited and certainly not deserved by all.
“I have diligently followed COVID protocols since March and intend to continue to do so and sorry I didn’t,” he added. “I assure council that I will do my utmost to avoid a similar situation in the future.”
Coun. Don Harrison told council he also attended the meeting and agreed with Bates that the photo shoot was a “spontaneous” moment.
He commended the leaders of the committee for being organized when it came to COVID regulations, which included mandatory signing-in for all participants and leaving phone numbers, having sanitizer and masks available, and being properly social distanced at all times.
“Overall, I believe they met what was required by Alberta Health standards but at the end it was very spontaneous. It was a 30-second photo shoot,” said Harrison. "I think in the excitement of it all it was poor judgement."
“I too apologize for not thinking through it and in that 30 seconds of fame I forgot about what Alberta Health Services is continuing to remind us about and that is wearing masks,” he added. “I apologize to council. I apologize to administration and I apologize very sincerely to the constituents of Innisfail.”
Jason Heistad, co-chair of the Welcoming committee, confirmed meeting instructors asked participants at the end of the meeting if a group selfie photo could be taken.
“We used all the precautions for COVID-19. We were social distancing in our groupings all the time,” said Heistad. “When we were asked to do the picture, and in the frame itself it looks a lot closer than we actually were. We did try to be as far apart as possible for the selfie, and that is all that happened. It was a great night.”
