An Instagram reel to fraud
A look back at the timeline from Andy Fillmore's selfie video about the WSX in Jan 2025 to the RCMP's investigation today.
How a selfie video led to an RCMP investigation
by Matt Stickland
It’s been just over a month since Halifax’s auditor general referred four questionable expenses from the mayor’s office to the RCMP. Auditor Andrew Atherton sent his report to the police when his audit hit “an area where I’m not qualified to say whether something is illegal or not illegal.” A recent FOIPOP revealed more details about how we got here.
At the Audit and Finance Committee’s June meeting, Atherton got into some detail on the spending by the mayor’s office—more than $110,000—that was, perhaps illegally, charged to the city. And all of this kicked off with the smallest invoice—$1,425—related to the most common of things, an Instagram reel.
Back in January 2025, the mayor was mad. A council vote on major changes to the Windsor Street Exchange had not gone his way. So he sat in his car and griped about it for a minute in a vertical video he posted on social media. Publicly dissing your colleagues is frowned upon at city hall.
It’s frowned upon because of clause 16(1) of the Code of Conduct for Elected Officials: “A Council member must abide by, and act in accordance with, any decision made by Council, whether or not the member voted in favour of the decision.”
Back in Jan. 2025, citizens were able to complain about their representatives breaking the Code of Conduct, and on Feb. 14, 2025, one did, writing in an email that “after the council meeting on Jan 28, Mayor Andy Fillmore took to social media and posted a video in which he trashed council for making a mistake. I believe this contravenes Clause 16(1) of the municipal code of conduct and wish to lodge a formal complaint.”
On April 14, 2025, the HRM appointed investigators to this complaint.
On May 2, 2025, Fillmore started receiving legal services relating to this complaint.
On July 23, 2025, the complaint was dismissed.
On August 6, 2025, city lawyer John Traves wrote an email to Joanne Macrea, Fillmore’s chief of staff: “In future, please call me before retaining legal counsel. We have insurance that covers some matters but only when members are acting within the scope of their duties (an insurance claim for cost of defending personal
comments or actions doesn’t count).”
Traves went on to cite the orientation for new councillors where the mayor and council got booklets that read “The municipal solicitor cannot ordinarily represent the Mayor, CAO or Regional Council in cases based on actions which are outside the scope of their duties and powers.” If the mayor, CAO or councillor does need legal services in those cases they “are obligated to provide their own defense at their own expense.”
Traves let the rule violation slide and, in an email to Anguish a few months later, he would explain that he “accepted it was done by mistake and exercised my discretion to cover it out of Legal’s outside lawyer budget.”
And with that, Traves must have hoped this whole episode had been a useful teachable moment for the new mayor and his staff.
But then, it happened again.
