Evans cleared on three ‘egregious’ harassment integrity complaints
By: Derek Howard, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, Source: MidlandToday.ca, un 27, 2025
Within the communications section of the recent Tiny Township council meeting were two dispositions for three code of conduct complaints against Mayor Dave Evans.
All three accusations were deemed by the integrity commissioner to not breach the municipal code of conduct, and Evans had words to say during the meeting.
“I’m not a social media person as you might know,” said Evans. “(There) have been a topic of a lot of – as usual – misinformation, slander; a lot of really, really malicious and really bad comments about conduct, in terms of my behaviour and what happened in those incidents.”
The three accusations against Evans occurred over council meetings in November and February, which the integrity commissioner Principles Integrity tied to opponents of the Stop the Build campaign regarding construction of the Tiny Township administration centre that’s scheduled for completion in 2027.
“The statements themselves go to exonerate me of any wrongdoing,” said Evans, “any malicious… or anything that is going on in terms of what’s going on in social media that I hear from other people.”
Evans’ stated his comments weren’t only for himself, but also for public awareness as “just as another example of the abuse and the lack of respect, and the reasons that we came up with the citizens code of conduct. And not just for us who put ourselves out there… But staff, too. That’s why I felt it was incumbent for me to bring this forward. Not for any personal reason, but to make this aware – that this is going on, and it’s constantly going on in our community.”
Tiny council adopted a citizen code of conduct earlier this month, with Evans and other council and staff members telling MidlandToday how they had been the subject of harassment including cyberbullying by a handful of the township’s 13,000 residents.
Evans added: “This is by no means all the complaints that I have, and none have ever been proven in the wrong, but these are the three of the two of the most egregious that I’ve been made aware of.”
During the comments section, Coun. Kelly Helowka also shared similarities for Evans’ statement.
“In congruence with what you’re saying, I, too, have had two complaints filed that have both been unfounded,” said Helowka. “And it’s just starting to become very cumbersome, not only on my family and your family, Your Worship, but all members of council (and) their families.
“And not to mention the cost to the taxpayer when all of these frivolous complaints are put forward.”
Within the disposition summaries, Evans was cleared by the integrity commissioner on accusations of municipal code of conduct for intimidation, bullying, and township workplace violence and harassment policies.
The three summary of disposition for code of conduct complaints from Principles Integrity can be viewed on the agenda page on the Township of Tiny website.
Archives of council meetings are available to view on the township’s YouTube channel.