North Vancouver council to vote on ending year-long ban on owning pigeons
Ban happened shortly after a councillor, who lives next door to a pigeon owner, pressured fellow councillors
After multiple lawsuits and an independent investigation, a majority of councillors in the District of North Vancouver want to end ruffled feathers over the municipality's pigeon ban.
A motion for the Oct. 19 council meeting brought forward by councillors Megan Curren, Jim Hanson, Jordan Back and Mathew Bond asks staff to revoke the prohibition on owning pigeons, which council passed into law one year ago.
It also asks staff to bring back the "Keeping of Pigeons Bylaw", which had allowed pigeons to be owned in the district since 1971.
"There's a majority of council that takes this issue very seriously," said Bond.
"And we're serious about starting that process of rebuilding trust."
Councillor had years-long dispute with pigeon owner
On Nov. 4, 2019, council passed the bylaw banning pigeons, becoming the only municipality in Metro Vancouver with a law specifically targeting that species of bird.
Coun. Lisa Muri, who brought forward the motion, said allowing pigeons was "a very old archaic bylaw" and it was a simple way of reflecting that the municipality had become much more urban.
The motion passed 4-2, with Coun. Betty Forbes recusing herself, saying "I have been involved in a situation like this."
But a CBC News investigation revealed Forbes was the only person in the district with an active file complaining about pigeons. Records show she emailed and phoned the district multiple times over several years about pigeons belonging to her next door neighbour, Kulwant Dulay, arguing they were causing disturbances, including defecating on her property.
After being elected to council in 2018, Forbes demanded senior staff take action on Dulay's pigeons, sent an email to multiple councillors (including Muri) explicitly asking for a ban on owning pigeons and had email conversations with Muri entitled "Pigeons," "Repeal of the pigeon bylaw" and "Keeping of Pigeons Bylaw."
Forbes, who rejected all requests for comment by CBC News, later told council she wished she'd had further training on conflict of interest rules.
Pigeon owner: 'it's good for everybody'
Council has since passed reforms around conflict of interest training and access to district lawyers for advice, following an independent report by former B.C. privacy commissioner and deputy attorney general David Loukidelis into the matter.
But Bond said it was important for council to go one step further by repealing the pigeon ban altogether.
"The public outcry around the way that this bylaw was created in the past, I think it's completely justified," he said.
"I think the recommendations in the report are good incremental recommendations. But the first thing that we need to do to help restore that trust is to repeal the bylaw and reinstate the previous one."
Dulay and his pigeons have been stuck in limbo for the last seven months, with district staff choosing not to enforce the bylaw due to the ongoing lawsuits.
He's happy with recent developments and says he'll drop his lawsuit against North Vancouver if it lets him keep his birds.
"It's good for everybody," he said.
"Everybody has been giving support [for months], but nothing has happened. So we'll see what happens Monday."