A man who routinely interrupts Township of Langley public hearings may have had his last outburst.
Late last week the Township filed a claim to have him legally banned from attending all meetings, an effort which is expected to take 14 to 30 days to process.
“We are seeking an order to prohibit him from attending Township of Langley events and locations, including interacting with staff and council members,” Township CAO Mark Bakken told the Times.
That didn’t stop the man from attending Monday evening’s public hearing, where he was escorted out by police for the fifth time in two years.
At the start of the public hearing, as Mayor Jack Froese was giving his preamble, the man stood up from his front-row seat and started reading from a prepared speech about the Council Procedure Bylaw. After the man refused to stop speaking, the mayor asked police to escort him out.
Two officers — one in plainclothes, who was seated nearby, and another in uniform — grabbed the man and walked him out.
Someone from the audience booed, while another man yelled out, “What, he can’t even talk?”
Froese asked for order from the audience members, to which someone replied, “You don’t scare me.”
“I don’t scare anybody,” Froese said, causing many to laugh.
This was far less dramatic than the man’s outburst at the May 9 regular evening meeting, when he was handcuffed and physically dragged out of council chambers.
He was also asked to leave three different public hearings prior to that event.
Over the past 20 years, three other people have been banned from attending meetings in the Township — one by court order and two by council directive.
The disruptive man has also attended council meetings in the City of Langley, but has never caused a disturbance or been escorted out by police, CAO Francis Cheung said.
In the 10 years he has been CAO of the City, Cheung says they have never had to forcefully remove or prohibit anyone from attending council meetings.