Kamloops mayor bullied, intimidated staff, external investigation finds

Kamloops Mayor Reid Hamer-Jackson has been found to have breached the city’s code of conduct for the fifth time.

A new investigation report, released by the city, finds Hamer-Jackson bullied staff and breached their privacy by sharing personal information.

“No mayor should treat staff in this manner and the mayor owes these staff an unqualified apology,” said external investigator Reece Harding in the report, dated February 2026.

Harding said Hamer-Jackson acted in a way “that was both unwelcome and intimidating” and he humiliated staff and questioned their professional competence.

WATCH | Hamer-Jackson previously refused to heed council’s call to resign:

Kamloops mayor refuses to heed council’s call to resign

City council in Kamloops, B.C., has formally called on Mayor Reid Hamer-Jackson to resign after a scathing report by a provincially appointed municipal adviser was made public on Tuesday. But, CBC’s Marcella Bernarndo explains, the mayor is refusing to resign.

The names of the staff members involved were redacted in the published report.

It is the fifth time a code of conduct complaint against Hamer-Jackson has been substantiated, according to the City of Kamloops.

Coun. Dale Bass filed the complaint, saying the mayor breached the city’s code of conduct by sending “abusive content” to staff and breaching their privacy.

“The mayor was combative with the city staff who were simply attempting to do their jobs,” Harding said in the report.

The external investigator recommended that council formally censure the mayor and send him a letter of reprimand.

He also recommended the mayor issue three letters of apology to the staff involved, and if he failed to do so, to reduce his pay by five per cent for the rest of his term as mayor.

At a closed meeting in March, council said Hamer-Jackson must sign and deliver an apology to the three staff members affected by his conduct within 30 days, and if he does not, his pay will be reduced by five per cent per apology letter until he complies.

Kamloops council has also asked Hamer-Jackson to take mandatory workplace training on protecting personal information, failing which his pay would be cut by a further five per cent.

Privacy breach

Harding said he was unable to receive a “substantive response” from Hamer-Jackson, so he concluded the investigation without his participation.

At one point when trying to reach the mayor, a colleague of Harding sent the the mayor a 57-page letter with detailed information about the complaint and gave the opportunity for the mayor to respond.

The mayor responded about 20 minutes after the office sent the letter, according to the report, and said: “Please just do your report and send to your same jury (councillors). Thanks Mayor Hamer-Jackson.”

Part of the investigation involved emails and texts Hamer-Jackson sent to a staffer, after he was asked to double-delete an email considered by the city to be a privacy breach.

Hamer-Jackson questioned whether anyone’s privacy had been breached and asked whether a Supreme Court judge would agree with “deleting evidence.”

One staff member said the emails caused them to feel humiliated and intimidated.

Harding described some of the emails Hamer-Jackson sent to staff as “aggressive and sarcastic in tone.”

The external investigator said he accepted the evidence of staff as reliable, while the mayor “provided no evidence of his own to counter that which staff provided.”

Mayor, councillor respond

Hamer-Jackson said in an interview with CBC News that he did not owe the staff in question an apology, and that he had yet to actually see the allegations in question.

He had previously filed a code of conduct complaint against Bass himself— which Harding, who previously served as the City of Surrey’s ethics commissioner, dismissed.

“I’ve asked this lawyer for proof, facts and evidence. It’s amazing that something that’s almost a year old surfaces six months before an election,” the mayor said.

“I think these whole code of conduct complaints have been used as a political weapon,” he added.

Bass, who filed the complaint against Hamer-Jackson, said there have been more than two dozen code of conduct investigations launched against the mayor.

She said the current one cost the city around $56,000.

“I knew that the mayor would not participate. I knew that was going to make things cost more,” she said.

“But I also knew that we as councillors have an obligation — a legal obligation, if not a moral one — to ensure our staff feel safe,” she added. “And these staff members did not feel safe.”