The sponsors of an all-candidates meeting Sunday at Duncan United Church are proving to be more controversial than the candidates themselves.

Some people have called for a boycott of the meeting.

Some fear an unfair bias.

Others question the group’s beliefs and tactics.

One can expect the questions posed at any all-candidates meeting to be tilted somewhat in favour of the group hosting the event.

And that is certainly no different with Adrienne Richards and Joseph Enslow of Citizens Oversight Accountability Project (COAP).

Six Mountains has seen the list of questions that COAP distributed to North Cowichan candidates in advance of the October 4 meeting starting at 2:30 pm. (The CVRD portion of the event starts at 5 pm.)

The preamble to one question about the Official Community Plan includes: “The North Cowichan OCP was created during the pandemic, when most people were trying to navigate life, save their small businesses, or remain healthy.”

Richards spoke at a public hearing on July 19, 2022, a month before the OCP was approved.

“To summarize the OCP, it reads like a far overreach by local government whose citizens are already regulated and taxed to the hilt and being further restricted in mobility, true sustainability and growth,” she told the public hearing.

Read more on the public hearing: https://www.sixmountains.ca/article/99e97aca-2764-4bbc-a803-8f3885850b1e

(Six Mountains reported at the time that of 128 written submissions received by municipal hall from June 23 to July 14, 2022, 80 percent supported the OCP. Of 43 late submissions, 31 supported the OCP. Further details on submissions at two public hearings: https://pub-northcowichan.escribemeetings.com/filestream.ashx?DocumentId=7203 )

COAP is also asking North Cowichan candidates about climate and transportation plans, spending priorities, growth boundaries, invisible disabilities, street disorder and addictions.

“When the questions are done, for each topic there will be a short yes/no section,” candidates have been told.

It may sound reasonable to give the 14 candidates (among them, conservative candidate Joyce Behnsen, whose list of nominators includes Richards) a chance to fully consider their responses in advance.

On the other hand, that process can punish stronger candidates who’ve done their homework and can think on their feet, allowing weaker candidates time to smooth out their answers with AI — which serves to reduce the value of responses to the electorate.

COAP’s Substack posts come off as polished and somewhat measured, whereas on-line comments can be much different.

Richards recently mocked people who continue to get covid shots or wear masks.

"You are being conditioned — stay home stay safe," she wrote on social media. "Stay in your 15 min cities. You are a human so a parasite on the earth. The government is here for your safety.”

Richards is also a climate skeptic, and has posted: "We are in a cooling period currently."

Also: "We are actually in the end of a mini ice age…." More on the topic: https://science.nasa.gov/earth/climate-change/there-is-no-impending-mini-ice-age/

Richards is the main public face of COAP.

Enslow handles the website, and owns Valley Wise Exteriors.

Both of them, along with Chris Shaw, ran unsuccessfully under the banner of the United Independents in the 2022 election.