Eadie apologizes for drunken behaviour, still questions why cops called mayor’s office

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This article was published 09/11/2015 (3678 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

City councillor Ross Eadie is apologizing to public officials who had to deal with him while he was drunk over the weekend.

The Mynarski ward councillor spent the night in the drunk tank at the Main Street Project Friday after he passed out in a taxi and reportedly behaved belligerently to officials who woke him up.

“I’m apologizing to all of the Winnipeg public service people who may have encountered me early Saturday morning,” Eadie said this morning.

“I’m the one who caused the situation.”

Eadie said the fact he went out and had too much to drink on a Friday night after work will not have any effect on his job.

“My ability to be a city councillor is still quite strong,” he said, “And I will continue doing what I think is an excellent job representing those people in Mynarski ward.”

A source told the Free Press Eadie was verbally abusive to police, prompting a senior officer to report his behaviour to the mayor’s office. The Winnipeg Police Service said Monday it will not comment.

But Eadie said he still can’t understand why police contacted the mayor’s office to inform Brian Bowman’s staff that he had been taken to the drunk tank.

“He is not my boss; the residents of the Mynarski ward are. They hired me through an election. I’ll have to deal with that the next election, but I’m not taking anything any further on this. The reality is that a senior officer wouldn’t have called if I hadn’t gotten too drunk and ended up in the Main Street Project.”

He said he has since spoken with employees in the mayor’s office – some of whom had offered to take him home after he was released from the Main Street Project Saturday – and he said he has a good relationship with them. They are also concerned that police called them about a private matter, he said.

“Their message is pretty clear: Ross Eadie’s personal activities are really none of our business,” Eadie said. The mayor’s office has not commented about the issue.

The Main Street Project, on Martha Street, is the only shelter and drop-in centre downtown that will take people if they’re intoxicated.

After he was released Saturday morning, Eadie, who is legally blind, said a homeless man gave him directions back to city hall, where he picked up his belongings, went home and “frankly, felt very embarrassed with myself.”

“Alcohol can be a really stupid thing, there’s no doubt about that. I’m not a violent person, but I might have been quite belligerent because I just wanted to go home,” he said. “When you’re totally blind, given my very long distant past experience in life, I really don’t like to be handled – and that’s why I’m apologizing to the Winnipeg public service.”