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Victoria Mayor Lisa Helps said she did not know that Coun. Sharmarke Dubow had travelled to East Africa until Tuesday afternoon shortly before he made a public statement about his international travel.

“With so many Victorians making such sacrifices this past year to pull together as a community to stop the spread of COVID-19, Coun. Dubow’s decision to travel internationally was both disappointing and irresponsible,” Helps said at a press conference Wednesday morning.

Helps said she has no power to discipline Dubow as he is accountable to the public. “Ultimately the next steps are left in his hands,” she said. Helps said when she spoke to Dubow Tuesday she asked what his plans are and he said he does not intend to resign.

The mayor said she’s received emails from members of the public who said they did not travel out of province to see a dying relative and did not see family members over the holidays so they’re upset that Dubow left the country despite public health advice to avoid non-essential travel.

Many people have made sacrifices to stop the spread of COVID-19, Helps said, so there cannot be one set of expectations for the public and another for elected officials.

“As community leaders we should be held to a higher standard,” she said. “We should be exemplary role models, following the public health advice that we’ve all received.”

Dubow has not replied to a request for comment. In his Facebook post Tuesday, he apologized for his “poor choice” to travel to East Africa.

“I had been planning and saving for this trip for years and returned to East Africa for the first time since I fled the civil war in Somalia in 1992 as a child,” he wrote. “I saw family members I hadn’t seen in more than three decades.”

However, Dubow posted photos on social media in December 2019 from Ethiopia and from Djibouti in January 2019. On Tuesday night, Dubow clarified that it was his first time to Somalia and Kenya since he fled.

The Times Colonist asked more than 80 municipal councillors in Greater Victoria if they had travelled internationally during the Christmas break or since the start of the pandemic. All but two of the 68 councillors who replied said they had not travelled internationally since March. Many said they have not left the Island, or even their region and said they’ve cancelled international holidays or trips to see family members.

Metchosin Coun. Kyara Kahakauwila has defended her trip to Mexico for a friend’s wedding, saying she was up front with Metchosin’s mayor, council and the public about her travel plans.

Kahakauwila said she and her husband, Edison, went to Cabo San Lucas from Dec. 1 to Dec. 8 and quarantined for two weeks afterward.

“Yes we made the decision to travel,” said Kahakauwila, who has been a councillor since 2006. “We didn’t hide it from anybody.”

“Travelling is not illegal — it’s discouraged,” she said.

Premier John Horgan told British Columbians on Nov. 18 to avoid non-essential travel, amid rising COVID-19 case numbers.

kderosa@timescolonist.com